It’s well known that Stella McCartney doesn’t use fur in her clothing. It’s only recently that she has made her reasons known for also rejecting leather. McCartney says her piece in a video she made with PETA- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals-timed to coincide with New York Fashion Week. She explains in the video why she stopped using animal skins. Leather isn’t a by-product of the meat industry, she says, but an important co-product that contributes directly to the ills of factory farming.
The video is graphic and disturbing. You can view it here.
PETA planned to run a shortened version of the PSA on taxi screens across Manhattan, VeriFone Media, which manages advertising and media programming in nearly 12,000 of the city’s yellow cabs, put the kibosh on PETA’s proposal as swiftly as it was submitted, according to The Discerning Brute’s Joshua Katcher. “It’s illogical that they’re willing to play a promotion selling fashion objects, but if you dare to explain how a fashion object is made, you’re silenced,” he tells ecouterre.com. “The reality of fashion production is not often as beautiful or lucrative as the fairy tale spun about the object afterwards.”
McCartney says her goal isn’t to shame other designers or buyers. “Our aim is not to tell you what to wear but to give you the facts so you can make an informed decision the next time you’re considering buying leather,” she says. “As a designer, I like to work with fabrics that don’t bleed; that’s why I avoid all animal skins,” she says.
