Elle says will drop fur from magazines worldwide

PARIS

Elle magazine announced on Dec. 2 it will stop using fur in all its editorial and advertising content worldwide, becoming the first major publication to do so.

The monthly lifestyle magazine, which originated in France and is owned by French media group Lagardere, comes out in 45 different editions around the world. It has about 33 million readers from Mexico to Japan, with 100 million monthly online visitors.

But Elle’s international director Valeria Bessolo Llopiz told an annual two-day fashion industry conference in Britain that fur was no longer acceptable.

“The presence of animal fur in our pages and on our digital media is no longer in line with our values, nor our readers,” she said.

“It is time for Elle to make a statement... rejecting animal cruelty,” Bessolo Llopiz told delegates at The Business of Fashion Voices 2021 event in Chipping Norton, in Oxfordshire, southern England.

Instead, she said the magazine wanted to “increase awareness for animal welfare” and “foster a more humane fashion industry.”

The magazine has already dropped fur from 13 of its editions. Twenty more will drop fur from Jan. 1, 2022, and the rest will start a year later.

The move reflects the changing nature of consumer demand, Bessolo Llopiz told AFP. “Fur has become old-fashioned,” she said, noting many brands had gone “fur-free” years ago.

“We are in a new era and the Gen Z (born in the late 1990s to early 2010s), which is the golden target for fashion and luxury, has huge expectations in terms of sustainability and ethics,” she added.

Welcoming Elle’s decision, PJ Smith, director of fashion policy for the Humane Society of the United States, said he looked forward to other fashion magazines following suit.

“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,” he told the conference.

“Fur promotions belong only in the back copies of fashion magazines from days gone by,” Elisa Allen, the U.K. director of animal rights organization PETA, told AFP.

She welcomed decisions by publications, including British Vogue, InStyle USA, Cosmopolitan U.K., and the newly launched Vogue Scandinavia, rejecting fur on their editorial pages and expects the move to soon extend to advertising.