French high-end fashion brand Saint Laurent will stop using fur in its collections, its parent company Kering said on Friday.
Within the Kering group, Gucci was the first to drop fur in 2017, followed by Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta and Alexander McQueen. Kering would be entirely fur-free from the fall 2022 collections.
“The world has changed, along with our clients, and luxury naturally needs to adapt to that,” Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault said in a statement.
Animal rights groups have long lobbied the global fashion industry to give up fur, and several brands, including Versace, Chanel and Michael Kors, have already stopped using animal products.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) took the lead in protesting against Saint Laurent, demonstrating outside its store in Paris this year after supermodel Kate Moss appeared in an advertising campaign for the brand wearing a fox coat.
“There is nothing glamorous about fur,” PETA told Saint Laurent.
Louis Vuitton will keep selling fur
LVMH, Louis Vuitton’s parent company and Kering’s rival, told AFP that it would continue to sell fur products. Their products are being made “in the most ethical and responsible way possible”, LVMH said.
According to PETA, 85 percent of fur sold in the world originates from animals who live their entire lives in captivity, often in conditions “of misery” and “extreme suffering”.
They are usually killed by poison gas, electrocution or beaten to death with clubs, PETA said.