Pam Anderson Gives High Ratings to NYC Retailers for Vegan-Friendly Clothing

PETA Honorary Director Awards ‘A’ Grades to Stella McCartney and Zara for Fur-Free Policies and Impressive Vegan Apparel Selections

For Immediate Release:
June 16, 2016

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

New York City may be home to the most vegan-friendly retailers in the business. For the first time, PETA has teamed up with longtime animal advocate and fashion entrepreneur Pamela Anderson to assess the vegan-friendliness of dozens of major retailers and clothing brands, grading each one based on its selection of vegan offerings, policies on working with animal-derived materials, and efforts to develop cruelty-free fabric technology. The resulting letter grades run the full gamut from “A” to “F,” with many top-ranked retailers’ U.S. flagship stores located in New York.

The only “A+” goes to Save the Duck—whose all-vegan, down-free, high-tech insulating coats can be found in Barneys New York, Saks Fifth Avenue, and other upscale department stores—while Stella McCartney earned an “A,” thanks to its ban on angora wool, fur, and exotic skins as well as its wide selection of vegan leather shoes and vegan wool sweaters. The complete rankings are available on PETA’s website.

“If you’re still wearing animals, it’s time for a makeover,” says PETA Honorary Director Pamela Anderson, who can be seen modeling a vegan leather jacket by Zara on PETA’s homepage. “PETA’s ranking of vegan-friendly retailers can help you clean the skeletons out of your closet.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—awarded an “A-” to H&M, Zara, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Ann Taylor. Retailers that earned a “B” include The North Face—whose ThermoBall technology, which uses PrimaLoft synthetic fiber, is innovating cruelty-free insulation—and Free People, which has banned fur and angora wool and launched an exclusive vegan leather collection. Aldo and Journeys each earned a “C” for offering numerous leather-free shoes—if not in-store, then online—while J.Crew’s meager vegan options narrowly landed it a “D-.” UGG, and its sheepskin boots, joins Burberry and Michael Kors—with its fur, leather, and exotic-skins merchandise—at the bottom of the list with an “F.”

For more information, please visit PETA.org.