Breaking: PETA Disrupts Victoria Beckham’s Paris Fashion Week Show to Protest the Use of Leather

Paris – Today, as Victoria Beckham’s brand held its highly anticipated show, three PETA activists burst onto the catwalk with signs reading “Viva Vegan Leather” and the messages “Animals Aren’t Fabric” and “Turn Your Back on Animal Skins” written on her shirt/their shirts. While the brand of the former member of the Spice Girls has banned the use of fur and exotic skins in its collections, it still uses a large quantity of cruelly obtained leather, particularly calfskin. See a video of the catwalk takeover here.

“No garment or accessory is worth violently slaughtering and skinning a sensitive and intelligent animal,” says PETA Vice President for Europe Mimi Bekhechi. “We are urging Victoria Beckham to turn instead to the ethical and eco-friendly innovations available today, such as high-end leather made from apples, grapes, pineapples, mushrooms, and more.”

 Over 1 billion animals are killed annually around the world for leather. In India, cows’ tails are often broken and irritants like tobacco and chillis are rubbed into their eyes to force them to trek up to 60 miles to a slaughterhouse. Inside abattoirs, cows are thrown on bloodied floors and some endure the agony of being skinned alive while others are shot in the head before their throats are slit. Female cows are repeatedly impregnated, and their terrified babies are torn away from them shortly after birth – any item branded as “calfskin” or “calf leather” came from the violent abduction and slaughter of these babies.

Leather is also an environmental hazard. Each year, the global leather industry produces 600 million square metres of effluent, and industry studies have identified that cow leather is fashion’s most environmentally damaging material – over 90% of the damage occurs before the skins even reach the tannery, where then up to 170 unique chemicals are used.

This is the fourth fashion show disrupted by PETA entities this season. Activists also stormed the catwalks of Coach (in New York), Burberry (in London) and Fendi (in Milan). Last season, PETA entities also disrupted Fashion Week shows in New York, London, Milan, and Paris to protest against the use of animal skins.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram.

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

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