Vast Majority of London Fashion Week Designers Reject Fur

Posted by on March 4, 2016 | Permalink

We asked all the designers taking part in this year’s London Fashion Week if they would be using fur. A staggering 86 per cent of them said no.

Designers at London Fashion Week go fur-free

Fur has been on the way out for years – virtually all the retailers on the high street refuse to use the skins of minks, foxes, coyotes and other animals in their collections. For most people – once they know how animals suffer on fur farms before being killed in gruesome ways for their skins – wearing real fur is absolutely unthinkable.

The fur industry, however, is desperate to create the impression that its unethical products are in demand. One fur industry representative commented, “I’ll be disappointed if we don’t see fur on at least 80% of the catwalks”.

Given the trend towards compassionate fashion, this prediction seemed way off the mark to us, so we decided to conduct our own survey to determine just how much fur would appear in this year’s shows. And we were absolutely right – more than eight out of 10 designers involved in Fashion Week are not using any fur in their 2016 autumn/winter collections. That means even fewer designers are using fur this year than last year.

The industry is moving in the right direction, and thanks to designers such as Stella McCartney, Vivienne Westwood, Vika Gazinskaya, Shrimps, Christopher Ræburn, Felder Felder and many more, it’s never been easier to clothe yourself in cruelty-free style.

Of course, even the small amount of fur that is being used is still far too much. Every fur hat bobble or piece of trim represents an animal’s life. And a larger item such as a coat may use hundreds of animals’ skins.

If you ever see fur for sale, please speak or write to the store managers and ask them to adopt a compassionate fur-free policy. And help us put pressure on these two retailers who are shamefully still selling fur: