Italian luxury fashion house Valentino has announced that it will stop the use of animal fur from the year 2022. The luxury brand joins the ranks of other brands which have previously announced the discontinuation of fur use in their collections, like Calvin Klein, Coach, Gucci, Michael Kors, Versace. The latest collection by Valentino that will include fur will be the Fall/Winter 2021-22 collection.
The fur ban comes after a strong shift in consumer behaviour and promotion of animal rights across the board. For decades, foxes and minks have been used to produce fur products like coats and trims for accessories. While a lot of these animals are unethically killed for their fur, the negative environmental impact of animal fur production is about 10 times higher than that of faux fur owing to process like fleshing, tanning, wringing, etc. In Denmark, which is one of the leading producers of mink fur, producing approximately 19 million mink skins in a year (according to the Danish Agriculture and Food Council) releases large amounts of ammonia into the atmosphere annually.
In 2020, Valentino was also the first luxury brand to ban the use of alpaca fleece, which, according to the Higg Materials Sustainability Index, is the second most environmentally damaging material. The fashion house has announced that it would focus only on its main brand and discontinue collections for its second, younger line, REDValentino, from 2024. Valentino Chief Executive Jacopo Venturini said in a statement, "The concentration on one, and only one brand will better support a more organic growth of the Maison."
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