“Fur has always been a hot-button issue in fashion,” Robert Burke, founder of the eponymous luxury consultancy, told The New York Times back in 2015. “It is really the one area where money and ethics converge in fashion.” While many designers and retailers choose to remain mum on the issue and treat pelts as fabric and nothing more, the Yoox Net-a-Porter Group (YNAP) is taking a stand.
This week, the fashion conglomerate — one of the world’s largest, we might add — announced that it would no longer carry fur clothing or accessories on its e-commerce platforms, which include Net-A-Porter, Mr Porter, The Outnet and Yoox.
“The group started its journey towards creating a sustainable future back in 2009 with the launch of Yooxygen, the pioneering Yoox’s destination for social and environmental responsible brands,” Matteo James Moroni, head of sustainability at YNAP, told Vogue UK. “Since then we have made great steps. Yet there is still much more to do and we remain more focused than ever on our commitment to create a sustainable future. We have a strong sense of responsibility and recognize the importance of making a positive contribution to society. With a range of initiatives, partnerships, and innovations, our goal is to act as an industry-wide catalyst for change.”
Needless to say, the move represents a huge win for the animal rights lobby. “Yoox going fur-free sends a truly powerful message across the fashion world, and to luxury brands in particular, that fur is very firmly out of fashion,” Claire Bass, executive director of Humane Society International U.K., told the publication. “Designers and fashion retailers that continue to sell fur are peddling a product of immense animal suffering, so it is thrilling to see such influential brands embracing fur-free policies,” she added. Stella McCartney, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Armani and Vivienne Westwood are among the big-name brands that have already sworn off fur.
It’ll be interesting to see just how much teeth the measure has. The fur debate has been raging for years and still even hip, fashion-forward and ostensibly #woke designers continue to offer new (and, admittedly, intriguing) takes on the 1950s country club staple. For instance, this past runway season, Yeezy, J.W. Anderson, Céline, Marc Jacobs, Vetements, Michael Kors, Loewe, Dries Van Noten and Coach 1941 were all happy to show fur in the form of classic outerwear.
[ via Vogue UK ]
