Gucci’s CEO Marco Bizzarri revealed on Wednesday that the luxury fashion label will become a part of the Fur Free Alliance and will “no longer use, promote, or publicize animal fur,” beginning with its spring/summer 2018 line, Vogue reports. The announcement was made during a talk at the London College of Fashion.
Bizzarri told Vogue of the decision: “We’ve been talking about it, Alessandro [Michele] and I, for a few months. Technology is now available that means you don’t need to use fur. The alternatives are luxurious. There is just no need.”
Apparently young people may have had something to do with Bizzarri’s decisions to have Gucci go fur-free, since he claims to have recently “asked around 150 young people across the world to tell me three things wrong with Gucci.” Bizzarri also insists that Gucci is so successful because “All the people [who work there] are smiling.”
At present, Gucci sells several fur-involved items, including a $30,000 mink coat and a $13,500 lamb fur coat. This is also the brand that, the Cut reminds us, once hawked shoes lined with kangaroo fur. So it’s a dramatic reform, but Gucci will be in good company, joining a growing cadre of anti-fur brands that includes Armani, Stella McCartney, and Calvin Klein.
A charity auction will reportedly be held to unburden Gucci’s of its remaining fur clothing articles, with proceeds benefitting the Humane Society and LAV.