Cheers to Miuccia Prada who announced today that she will no longer use animal fur in her designs or new products, starting with her next runway in September.
“Focusing on innovative materials will allow the company to explore new boundaries of creative design while meeting the demand for ethical products,” Prada told Bloomberg.
This uplifting news comes on the heels of last week’s public hearing for the historic Intro 1476, legislation that was introduced in March by New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson that would ban fur sales in the city. FoA has been pushing for the introduction of such legislation since last spring.
“The fur industry is in a free fall,” said Priscilla Feral, president of FoA, in her testimony at the hearing. “This is the time you think about moral arguments rather than weighing everything according to economics…To the fur industry, these are throwaway animals whose lives should mean more. It’s important for our humanity to support 1476.”
Prada has already experimented with fur alternatives like the plush fabrics from German teddy bear-maker Steiff in recent seasons.
Speaking of alternatives, NYC is becoming a hot spot for faux fur. Luxury faux fur houses House of Fluff, Pelush NY and Maison Atia are making looks that don’t kill and are experiencing tremendous success.
“Today we can accurately imitate any kind of animal fur existing in nature, and even invent new ones,” said Anna Tagliablue, founder of Pelush. “Killing animals for fashion’s sake is wrong. There is no gray area.
“I have devoted 20 years of my life developing the antidote to this cruelty. Before that I worked in the high-end luxury fashion industry selling furs, until I had a life changing epiphany, and realized that my industry was really a killing machine profiting from a barbaric and antiquated trade in cruelty.”
To read more about FoA’s efforts to get NYC to flip off fur, visit this page.