The no-fur movement

Almost 5 years ago, Gucci - part of Paris-based luxury group Kering - made a groundbreaking announcement claiming it will no longer include animal-fur in its designs.

Since then, 40 major players of the fashion industry have made similar statements from ELLE magazine to Dolce & Gabanna, Chanel, Miu Miu or even Canada Goose. It is an unprecedented fact in the textile world to see a fabric so unanimously banned.

At Ecopel we believed it was a perfect time to meditate about the no-fur movement, its consequences and in parallel to find out more about innovations being implemented in the field of faux fur.

An opportunity for crucial topics

In March, Ecopel held a TALK “Responsible Fashion and new materials - faux fur catalyst for change?” at the prestigious Hôtel de Crillon in Paris.

Curated by fashion journalist Karine Vergniol, a line-up of enthusiast panelists took this opportunity to discuss crucial topics.

Géraldine Vallejo, Director of sustainability programme at KERING, Iris Douzet, Spokesperson for PETA France, Barbara Curto, Director of the fashion school ATELIER CHARDON SAVARD and Arnaud Brunois-Gavard, communications manager at ECOPEL exchanged views and ideas for more than an hour and replied to the questions of journalists who came in great numbers.

Innovative types of faux fur

It is the first time that a faux fur creator speaks openly with a proactive approach. In addition to that event, a unique faux fur vest was designed specifically for the occasion by new designer Vincent Darjo. The patchwork vest future fur was entirely made of innovative types of faux fur including KOBA® bio-based fur, GACHA® biodegradable faux fur and UMI Collection made from up-cycled waste collected from the oceans by the Seaqual® organization. It took Vincent almost 20 hours of work to create the vest.

The path towards a greener fashion system

The TALK was a great success and allowed the panelists to elaborate on their environmental strategies and commitments and helped the audience to have a better understanding of the path towards a greener fashion system, taking faux fur as a symbolic force of change.