What NOT to Wear to London Fashion Week

Five models stand with handbags dripping with “blood” to highlight why exotic skins have no place on the catwalk.

The graphic protest on Bond Street, taking place the day before London Fashion Week gets into full swing, was a plea for fashion to be beautiful, not bloody.

Tens of thousands of crocodiles, alligators, snakes, eels, kangaroos and other animals are killed for their skins every year. Often, they’re kept on crowded factory farms for their entire lives before being bludgeoned to death or skinned alive.

A recent PETA exposé of farms that supply crocodile and alligator skins to Hermès-owned tanneries documented that alligators on one farm had their necks sawn open. Some of them were still alive and moving minutes afterwards.

Our message to designers, fashionistas and kind people everywhere is to steer clear of shoes and accessories that are stained with animals’ blood.

Instead, opt for chic, ethical non-animal fabrics that are available from the many brands that have sworn off exotic skins – from Stella McCartney to Topshop.