Versace and Furla join designer labels ditching fur

MILAN (Reuters)—Italian fashion house Versace and handbag and accessories maker Furla said they would stop using real fur in their creations, joining a growing list of luxury labels turning their backs on the fur industry.

Fashion houses around the world are bowing to pressure and using alternatives to real fur amid pressure from animal rights groups and changing tastes of younger customers, who are increasingly aware of the environmental issues linked with the clothes they buy.

Donatella Versace, the artistic director and vice-president of Versace, said that she did not want to kill animals to make fashion and that it “it doesn’t feel right”, speaking in an interview with The Economist’s 1843 magazine on Wednesday.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA) Senior Vice President Dan Mathews said in an emailed statement that it was “a major turning point in the campaign for compassionate fashion”, adding that he looked forward to seeing a “leather-free Versace next”.

The animal rights group recently campaigned at the Pyeongchang Winter games for an end to the fur trade.

Furla on Thursday committed to replacing all fur with faux-fur for both menswear and womenswear starting from its Cruise 2019 collection.

Italian fashion group Gucci, part of Paris-based luxury conglomerate Kering, said in October it would stop using fur in its designs from its spring and summer 2018 collection joining Armani, Hugo Boss, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein and multi-brand online luxury retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter.

British designer Stella McCartney has long followed a so-called “vegetarian” philosophy, shunning not only fur, but also leather and feathers.

source: interaksyon.com

Actress Jane Birkin asks Hermes to remove her name from croc bag

PARIS | Actress and singer Jane Birkin has asked Hermes to remove her name from one of the luxury goods maker’s best-selling bags due to what she called “cruel” crocodile farming and slaughtering practices.

“I have asked Hermes to rename the Birkin Croco until they adopt better practices that meet international standards for the production of this bag,” Birkin said in a statement to the media on Tuesday.

Birkin said she had signed actor Joaquin Phoenix’s Mercy For Animals petition to “shed exotic skins from your wardrobe” in protest against the “millions of reptiles slaughtered each year and turned into shoes, handbags, belts and other accessories”.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said it had released a video, narrated by Phoenix and which Birkin had seen, showing how live reptiles were skinned or sawed open on farms that supplied luxury brands.

Hermes said the crocodile skins it sourced from a Texas farm in the video were not used for Birkin bags and stressed that it did not own that farm.

The luxury brand also said that an investigation was being conducted into the farm’s practices and that “any breach of rules will be rectified and sanctioned.”

Hermes said it imposed on its suppliers the highest ethical standards regarding the treatment of crocodiles and for more than a decade, had conducted monthly checks on them to ensure that they were respected.

“Hermes respects and shares her (Jane Birkin’s) emotions and was also shocked by the images recently broadcast,” it said in a statement.

“Her comments do not in any way influence the friendship and confidence that we have shared for so many years.”

Birkin agreed to lend her name to the bag after sharing a flight with the charismatic late head of Hermes, Jean-Louis Dumas, in the 1980s.

The crocodile Birkin and the Kelly bag, named after actress Grace Kelly, are among the most sought-after luxury goods — even though the starting retail price is more than 20,000 euros ($22,096) – partly because shops routinely run out of them.

Customers can obtain one either by putting their name on a waiting list or by paying hefty fees to specialized buyers who scout for the bags on their behalf.

A fuchsia Hermes crocodile Birkin bag with a diamond-studded clasp and lock set a record as the most expensive handbag ever sold at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong last month, fetching $222,000.

source: interaksyon.com

Oprah Winfrey ‘sorry’ for reaction to Swiss handbag incident

LOS ANGELES | Oprah Winfrey said she was sorry for the uproar and media response caused by her comments about an incident in a Swiss luxury store last month when an assistant refused to show her a $38,100 handbag.

At the premiere of her new film, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” in Los Angles on Monday evening, the U.S. actress and talk show host, recently named by Forbes as the world’s most powerful celebrity, said she regretted saying it took place in Switzerland.

“I’m really sorry that it got blown up. I purposefully did not mention the name of the store. I’m sorry that I said it was Switzerland,” she told reporters on the red carpet.

“I was just referencing it as an example of being in a place where people don’t expect that you would be able to be there,” she added.

Winfrey, 59, said in television interviews last week that while she was in Switzerland for the wedding of singer Tina Turner last month a sales assistant in a Zurich shop had refused to show her a luxury handbag by designer Tom Ford, saying it was “too expensive” and instead suggested cheaper bags.

Swiss tourism officials said it regretted the incident and the owner of the Tom Ford boutique, luxury shop operator Trois Pommes, denied racism, saying it was a misunderstanding.

“This has nothing to do with racism. I am here for everyone and the customer is king,” shop owner Trudie Goetz said last week.

Goetz added that the sales assistant had wanted to show Winfrey, who earned an estimated $77 million in the year to June 2013, that the bag was available in other materials, which may have given the impression that the shop did not want to sell it to her.

“It’s not an indictment against the country or even that store,” Winfrey explained. “It was just one person who didn’t want to offer me the opportunity to see the bag, so no apologies necessary from the country of Switzerland.”

In “The Butler,” which deals with race issues and opens in U.S. theaters on Friday, Winfrey plays the wife of an African-American butler who worked at the White House for eight U.S. presidents.

The handbag incident sparked criticism in Switzerland where media reported last week that local governments were given authority to prohibit asylum seekers from using public sports venues like municipal pools, prompting criticism from advocacy group Human Rights Watch. A government minister denied the reports.

source: interaksyon.com