Written by Michelle Kretzer
PETA pal Stella McCartney never kills animals for her designs, but she certainly killed it at Paris Fashion Week with her cruelty-free collection. The star-studded front row raved about her fur- and leather-free autumn/winter 2013 ready-to-wear collection. An impressed Bono astutely observed to PETA Veep Dan Mathews, "Stella is PETA's number one ally in the fashion world." Jessica Alba said, "Her clothes are just as elegant as any line that uses animals." And Stella's proud pop, Paul McCartney, noted, "I thought it was beautiful. Very clean, very strong."
© StarMaxInc.com
Stella's comfortable yet stylish designs are universally appealing to everyone from A-listers to young professionals like me, who make a beeline for the Stella rack at Last Call Neiman Marcus. They're comfortable pieces, yes, but there's also comfort in knowing that no animals died for my fashion statement. And there's comfort in knowing that my money is going to a design house that will continue blazing the path into a brave new fashion world where creativity reaches compassionate new heights.
PETA News on Tumblr
Don't miss a thing: Follow PETA on Tumblr.
Don't call the female dolphins of Shark Bay, Australia, "fashion-obsessed." They just prefer to bond with gals who dress like they do. Dolphins who choose to wear sponges on their noses to root in the sand for fish generally hang out with other "spongers," while dolphins who prefer the sponge-free look bond with each other.
On Lake Shore Boulevard in Toronto, traffic moves slowly enough that people can see—and videotape—trucks filled with pigs on their way to slaughter. The horrifying videos have gone viral—now will viewers go vegan?
As if you needed one more reason to love Stella McCartney, the cruelty-free fashion phenom is now offering a scholarship to inspire young designers to follow in her well-heeled, animal-friendly footsteps.
Teamwork! A thoughtful and enterprising passerby helped three precocious bear cubs get out of a Dumpster.
Who said it? "Imagine how different the world would be if, in fact, it were 'reading, writing, arithmetic, empathy.'"
New Features
You despise the cruel slaughter of chickens, cows, and pigs with the fire of a thousand suns. So what to do about it? Try these suggestions.
You saw her naked anti-fur ad—now you can have a piece of designer Cornelia Guest all to yourself. Enter to win one of the elegant vegan bags that she's giving away only to PETA supporters.
New Action Alerts
Paul McCartney stopped Olympic rehearsals to do it. Would you take a moment to ask the forest minister of Maharashtra, India, to send an abused young elephant to a sanctuary?
Tell officials at Lagoon amusement park that keeping wild animals in filthy enclosures is not amusing, and ask them to retire the animals to sanctuaries and let parkgoers enjoy more rides and games instead.
Officials in Ottawa are considering using cruel steel-jaw and snare traps to kill beavers. Ask them to use any of the many proven humane beaver-control methods that are readily available instead.
Tell Groupon that circuses give animals a raw deal, and let the company know that you won't be using its services until it stops promoting the three rings of misery.
Sugar gliders, tiny nocturnal marsupials, prefer to live in groups of about 30 and spend their time climbing trees and exploring the forest. But a company called "Pocket Pets" is setting up mall kiosks and selling the animals one by one to anyone who wants an impulse "pet." Urge Bayer Properties to prohibit the sale of sugar gliders at its malls.
California's recent foie gras ban was a huge victory for animals, but a bill before Congress aims to gut it. Farm Bill Amendment 45 would force states to allow cruelly produced meat and dairy products across their borders, even if a state has already banned the product. Urge your representatives to oppose Amendment 45 and let states retain their right to protect animals.
Written by PETA
Fur-free party animals gathered en masse at Stella McCartney's West Hollywood boutique on Friday for the release of Sir Paul McCartney's music video for "My Valentine," starring Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp.
Woody Harrelson undoubtedly enjoyed the vegetarian food, while Joan Jett rocked vegan boots, as did Gwyneth Paltrow, who has shunned fur for PETA.
Photo: Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic
PETA Vice President Dan Mathews and Honorary PETA Director Pamela Anderson made quite the striking pair, as always. They were greeted by Stella, who playfully scolded Pam, "How dare you wear clothes in my shop!" (Pam famously posed nude in the designer's London store window beneath a banner reading, "I'd rather bare skin than wear skin," to draw attention to Stella's fur- and leather-free fashions.)
Photo: Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic
Dan and Pam thanked Gwen Stefani for keeping fur out of her fashion lines and were invited by Jane Fonda to sit at her table to discuss activism. The hot topic with Sir Paul was this year's Canadian seal slaughter—or what's left of it following sealskin bans by the U.S., the E.U., and Russia. Both Pam and Paul have helped lead this campaign for more than a decade, and their work is finally paying off. We can't think of a better "Valentine" for Sir Paul than to have thousands of baby seals' lives spared.
Google goes gaga for vegan food, learn how to show bunnies some love this Valentine's Day, and help us ask Florida not to change its slogan to "The Hoarder State." Here's everything in PETA's world that you might have missed this week.
Don't miss any breaking animal rights stories. Hop on over to PETA's Tumblr page for the latest:
During New York Fashion Week, thousands of style editors from around the world scurry between runway shows in cabs—that's why PETA planned to run Stella McCartney's new leather exposé on the city's unavoidable video screens in taxis. We're no strangers to having our ads banned, so we've kind of grown thick skin about it, but we weren't prepared for the lightning-quick rejection that VeriFone Media gave us. It seems the company only wants to run consumer promotions, not cautions.
"As a designer, I like to work with fabrics that don't bleed; that's why I avoid all animal skins," Stella says in the video, which spotlights animal suffering and the human health risk and environmental impact of leather tanneries. "Please join me in exploring the huge variety of fashionable shoes, belts, purses, and wallets that aren't the product of a cow's violent death."
We're disappointed that the advertising company told us to take a hike, but we're launching the video for Fashion Week anyway. Check it out below:
Explore some überhip cruelty-free fashions with PETA's style guide.
The word on Twitter is that celebs are rejoicing over Ringling's being slapped with the largest penalty in circus history for violations of the Animal Welfare Act. Other celebs are buzzing about going postal.
Chuck star Yvonne Strahovski gave dogs in animal shelters something to rejoice over, discussing her "Always Adopt, Never Buy" campaign with PETA in the winter issue of Modern Dog magazine and urging readers to hop on the adoption train. As if that weren't enough, she then asked them to think about where fur comes from.
Morrissey and his bandmates left little doubt over what they think of fur when the band donned PETA shirts with a, ahem, choice message at a show in L.A.
Wearing fur is such a faux pas that designers are hard-pressed to find celebs willing to look like a permutation of Bigfoot. Reigning Sexiest Vegetarian Kristen Wiig says she will "never wear fur," and cruelty-free fashion designer Stella McCartney snagged the Red Carpet Award at the British Fashion Awards for her fur- and leather-free designs.
This week, animals lost a great advocate when comedian Patrice O'Neal passed away. "I am … [an] extreme animal lover," he once said. "I get sick when I see animals suffering." Farewell, friend.
Attention, ladies. Now you, too, can cause your neighbors to phone in Big Foot sightings. You, too, can look like the frightening "before" picture on an infomercial for Epilady. And you, too, can look like you are trying to kidnap the cast of Cats.
How? It's fall fashion season, and mixed in with some lovely new styles (such as Stella McCartney's color-block sheath dress that celebs are loving) are flops that make it seem like designers have been hitting the sauce a lot harder than they've been hitting the sketch pad. One design that is particularly puzzling is this epic fail: jackets with fur sleeves.
Of course! Women want their arms to look fat and hairy. Why didn't we think of that? But seriously, if you do favor a furry look, go with faux, like fauxier to the stars Donna Salyers' Fabulous-Furs, so that you'll avoid killing more animals than the entire Cullen clan.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
All they need is love! Congratulations to Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell who were married in an intimate ceremony at London's Old Marylebone Town Hall on Sunday.
After the nuptials, longtime vegetarian and PETA supporter Sir Paul and his new bride invited family and close friends to his St. John's Wood estate for a three-course vegetarian feast and two wedding cakes. The bride looked radiant in a dress designed by Sir Paul's daughter, Stella, who is leather- and fur-free and also a PETA supporter.
While many hearts are surely breaking anew around the world at news of "the cute one" being taken off the market, we're happy that Sir Paul, who gives so much of his time to helping animals, has found someone special to give all his loving to.
Last year, award-winning designer John Bartlett went vegan—and so did his celebrated collections, which no longer contain any animal skins.
So when Bartlett heard about the upcoming Runway to Green eco-fashion show, he also wanted to make sure that there would be no fur flying on the runway, considering how the fur industry wreaks havoc on the environment. Bartlett penned a letter to Salma Hayek, one of the hosts of the event, outlining how fur is loaded with toxic chemicals to keep it from rotting in people's closets and how fur farms have been fined millions of dollars by the Environmental Protection Agency for hazardous-waste violations.
Bartlett was thrilled to hear back almost immediately that there will be no fur at Runway to Green. Hayek herself shuns fur, as do designers Stella McCartney and Tommy Hilfiger, who will feature pieces in the show. Now that all the other designers have agreed to follow suit, Runway to Green will truly be both Earth-friendly and animal-friendly.
Maybe vegan Natalie Portman's Oscar-winning performance in Black Swan inspired us. PETA supporters took the use of fur in Paris Fashion Week collections into their own toe shoes with a demonstration that was visually stunning. To pointe out how animals killed for their fur are bludgeoned, electrocuted, and skinned alive, a dancer wearing a fur coat was sniffed, stalked, and "bitten" by other dancers portraying the animals she was wearing, and then her limp body was carried away.
The ballet, which featured dancers from Cirque du Soleil, Mozart, and Dracula, was performed outside the historic ballet venue Paris Opéra just after Stella McCartney's fur-free fashion show. The group drew a huge crowd and gave a convincing portrayal of why people should pirouette away from cruel fur.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
Follow PETA on Twitter!