Kylie Jenner’s Favorite Luxury Designer Has Dropped Fur

Luxury French fashion house Balmain, a favorite of Kylie Jenner, will no longer use fur.

Olivier Rousteing, creative director of the 74-year-old brand, announced the change in an interview with Vogue.  “I made the decision to not use fur about a year and a half ago. I saw so many documentaries and just thought, I cannot do this anymore,” he said.

Going forward, Balmain will turn to vegan alternatives for its luxury fur fashion. “Now suppliers are working to make sure that faux fur can look like a real fur, and it’s already pretty insane what they can create,” Rousteing continued.

Luxury Fashion Goes Fur-Free

Pending legislation that would ban the sale of fur in California and in New York — one of the world’s fashion capital — seek to end an industry notorious for the poor treatment of animals. Across the Atlantic, fur farming has been banned in more than 10 countries, including the UK, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Norway. A fur ban was approved by Ireland’s cabinet last June, making it the 15th country in Europe to ban the practice.

Balmain joins a growing number of high-end fashion brands ditching fur.

Fellow French fashion house Chanel announced late last year that it would fur and exotic animal skins from future collections. It will focus on creating new textiles instead. “The future of high-end products will come from the know-how of what our atelier is able to do,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion and president of Chanel SAS.

Other longstanding luxury brands that have recently banned fur include Burberry, Gucci, Diane von Furstenberg, and Versace. Fashion is embracing faux. Kim Kardashian shared that she replaced her fur coats with vegan versions on Instagram earlier this year. Designers such as Stella McCartney, New York-based Pelush, and Tom Ford are bringing vegan fur to the runway. British designer Jazmin Lee, founder of Plus Equals, specializes in colorful faux fur that caters to sizes 14-42.

Rousteing mused on the future of animal-free fur fashion: “Then again, if you don’t want to wear real fur, maybe you won’t be interested in faux fur, either. It could be that the fashion industry is just interested in following a trend, but for me, if you decide to stop using fur, you don’t go back. We need to be careful—and we need to believe in what we do.”