ELLE Bans Fur From All 45 Magazines Worldwide
The international fashion and lifestyle magazine is the first major publication to ban fur across all of its editorial and advertising, signaling the fur-free future.
Credit: ELLE
Fashion and lifestyle magazine ELLE has announced that it will no longer promote fur across its editorial and advertising in any of its 45 international editions. This marks the first time a major publication has done so.
The monthly lifestyle magazine, owned by French media group Lagardère, has 45 editions worldwide. It boasts about 21 million readers per month, with 100 million monthly online visitors.
ELLE’s international director, Valéria Bessolo Llopiz, announced the end of fur in all publications during the annual Business of Fashion conference in Britain on Thursday.
“For many years, ELLE has been engaged towards environment, sustainability, and ecology through regular features or special green issues. The presence of animal fur in our pages and on our digital media is no longer in line with our values, nor our readers,” Bessolo Llopiz told delegates during the two-day fashion event. “It is time for ELLE to make a statement on this matter, a statement that reflects our attention to the critical issues of protecting and caring for the environment and animals, rejecting animal cruelty.”
She said that removing fur from all publications is a chance for ELLE to “increase awareness for animal welfare” and “foster a more humane fashion industry.”
Each of the magazine's 45 global editions has signed a charter to disallow editorial content promoting animal fur on its printed pages, websites, and social media, according to Bessolo LLopiz.
ELLE has already ditched fur from 13 editions. Twenty will do so as of 1 January 2022, with the rest following one year later.
ELLE owner Lagardère Group collaborated with the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, and Creatives4Change in penning the charter.
The director of fashion policy at the HSUS, PJ Smith, celebrated ELLE’s decision: “This announcement will ignite positive change throughout the entire fashion industry and has the potential to save countless animals from a life of suffering and a cruel death.”
As part of the global fur trade, more than 100 million animals are killed for their fur every year, including coyote, mink, raccoon dog, and chinchilla. The trade is also detrimental to the environment, associated with water pollution, land degradation, and greenhouse gas emissions.
The decision comes as a growing number of brands and designers stop using fur in their clothes due to ethical grounds. Nordstrom, the luxury U.S. department store, said it would stop selling products made with fur or exotic animal skin by the end of 2021, and hundreds of fashion brands are now fur-free. Prominent names include Gucci, Versace and Prada, Burberry, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, Donna Karan, DKNY and Michael Kors, as well as Jean Paul Gaultier and Balenciaga.
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The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.