London Fashion Week Vows to Go Completely Fur-Free

It’s 2018, and some of us can hardly believe that people are still sporting authentic fur garments. The British Fashion Council has finally caught up with the spirit of the times and announced that London Fashion Week will be the first of the major fashion weeks to ban animal fur.

The British Fashion Council made this decision after sending out a poll to see how many designers planned to use fur in their designs this year. Out of 80 designers and brands, every single one said they won’t be incorporating fur in their designs. Plenty of high-end designers have decided to stop using animal fur in favor of cruelty-free alternatives. The number of animal rights protesters grew from a meager 25 in 2016 to 250 in 2017. It seems that BFC got the message for 2018.

Many influential brands are abandoning the practice of using animal fur. Burberry has made the decision to stop making new items from animal fur and will be phasing out their older fur products. “I don’t think it is compatible with modern luxury and with the environment in which we live,” Burberry executive Marco Gobbetti, told the Business of Fashion. Burberry is an iconic British brand, and they are sending a strong message to the rest of the fashion world: animal cruelty is out of style.

Fur farming has been banned in the UK since 2003. In a statement from PETA, they said, “The BFC shouldn’t be endorsing a material whose production is deemed so cruel that it is outlawed in the UK.” Using fur is not illegal in the UK, and until now, many brands have still been using it. Banning it from London Fashion Week will hopefully be the next step to ending animal cruelty in the name of fashion.