Prada goes fur-free, will focus on materials innovation

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 22, 2019

Prada has become the latest big name in luxury fashion to announce that it’s going fur-free with the group’s brands, including Prada itself plus Miu Miu, Church’s and Car Shoe, to stop using fur from its SS20 womenswear collection.

The news came via UK-based animal charity Humane Society International (HSI), whose sister organisation the Humane Society of the United States, together with Fur Free Alliance member LAV, worked with the Italian firm behind the scenes after running a public campaign urging the brand to drop fur last September.

HSI hailed the moved as “one of the most significant fur-free fashion statements yet” in its ongoing campaign to end the use of all fur worldwide.

Miuccia Prada said of the move that the group “is committed to innovation and social responsibility, and our fur-free policy - reached following a positive dialogue with the Fur Free Alliance, in particular with LAV and the Humane Society of the United States - is an extension of that engagement.”

She also said that the company would focus on innovative materials that would allow it "to explore new boundaries of creative design while meeting the demand for ethical products.”

The company has continued to use fur even after a number of its high-profile rivals ditched it with mink, fox and rabbit included in its collections. HSI has called out the treatment of these animals in particular as involving huge suffering on fur farms.

Claire Bass, Executive Director of Humane Society International/UK, said: “Prada Group’s historic announcement to go fur-free comes at a time when an unprecedented number of designers are turning their backs on the cruel fur trade and are fronting fashion based on fabric innovation instead of animal exploitation. Anti-fur policies like Prada Groups’s prove that forgoing fur isn’t a fast-fashion trend, it’s a step change to meet the demands of ever more socially and environmentally-conscious consumers.”

The group is continuing to call on the UK government to make Britain the first country in the world to  ban the sale of animal fur.

Labels still selling fur in the UK include Fendi, Max Mara, Celine, Valentino, Saint Laurent and Dolce & Gabbana. However Gucci (owned by Kering as Saint Laurent is) has already dropped fur. Versace, Burberry, Zadig & Voltaire, 3.1 Philip Lim, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Coach, Diane von Furstenberg, Furla, DKNY, Michael Kors and more have all made fur-free declarations recently.