For Immediate Release:
March 9, 2015
Niche couture designers may cling to their fur fetish, but mainstream retailers and designers, from Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein to Forever 21 and H&M, have abandoned fur. Last month, the world’s largest clothing retailer, Inditex, which owns such brands as Zara, banned angora and is donating its existing stock to Syrian refugees. Fur on the runways just isn’t translating into fur sales, especially when so many people are turning away from all animal skins. Shoppers are shunning wool after PETA investigations in Australia and the U.S. revealed that gentle sheep are beaten, punched, and even killed by impatient shearers. And leather is on the way out, too, as shoppers realize that, no matter whose skin they’re in—whether a cow’s or, as PETA recently revealed is often used in China, a dog’s—animals suffered and died. For a closer look at these issues and PETA’s impact on fashion, see this video hosted by Tim Gunn, who helped us get fur eliminated from all 41 Liz Claiborne brands.
