Luxury fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier says he will ditch fur, deeming the animal fur industry “absolutely deplorable.”
Announcing the news on French television last night, the haute couture and prêt-à-porter designer promised to ditch fur from all collections from this point onwards.
The decision follows years of campaigning by animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). In 2006, PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk hosted a takeover of Gaultier’s Paris boutique to protest his use of fur, and the designer has since been inundated with constant online campaigning.
Finally, the designer is taking note. Gaultier now joins a growing list of major designers saying no to fur, and embracing a movement towards cruelty-free fashion.
“The corks are popping at PETA’s headquarters after Jean Paul Gaultier announced live on French television last night that he won’t be using fur in future collections, admitting that the ways animals are killed for their fur are ‘absolutely deplorable’,“ Sascha Camilli, European Projects Manager for PETA told LIVEKINDLY via email.
“This decision is a sign of changed times, as most people no longer wish to wear anything from animals who were cruelly caged, electrocuted, bludgeoned to death or caught in steel traps, left to die slowly and painfully–the way coyotes are still being killed for the trim on Canada Goose jackets,” she added. “Fur today is as dead as the poor animals it was stolen from, and any designers not clued up enough to see that may as well hang up their sewing needles now.”
Times have changed since faux fur was considered the “cheap” substandard alternative to the animal pelts, and many fashion labels and fur aficionados are now embracing faux.
In September, London Fashion Week brought faux center-stage, going completely fur-free, and becoming the first major fashion week to do so. Since then, luxury label Coach has agreed to phase out mink, coyote, fox, and rabbit fur, joining other major fur-free brands including Versace, Tom Ford, Burberry, John Galliano, DKNY, and Diane von Furstenberg.
And it’s not just luxury brands bringing faux to the mainstream; high street retailers are widening their ranges of affordable faux fashion. British multinational fashion retailer Topshop, recently released a vegan-friendly, designer-style faux fur coat, along with a range of faux accessories.
Faux is so in-style that Vogue Australia raved about it recently, and even celebrities are backing it. Vegan actor and model Pamela Anderson helped socialite Kim Kardashian West and the First Lady of the U.S., Melania Trump, trade animal fur for cruelty-free alternatives. Other celebrities including Bella Hadid, Amy Adams, and Priyanka Chopra are fans of the faux fur created by 20-year-old designer Maya Reik. “Shameless” actor Emma Kenney even appeared in a recent anti-fur campaign for PETA, where she matter-of-factly asserted: “if you really want to look fresh, you should not wear anything dead—like fur.”
The anti-fur movement is so powerful that it’s become political. Reality TV stars from “Love Island,” Samira Mighty, Laura Anderson, and Laura Crane, even urged the UK Parliment to make Britain fur-free.
Image credit: Getty Images
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This post was last modified on December 15, 2020 7:11 am