Chanel Halts Use of Fur and Exotic Skins

Chanel has stated that it will “no longer use exotic skins in [its] future creations.” The house joins Versace, Burberry and Gucci, among others, in moving away from fur, but is the first major brand to explicitly depart from exotic leathers and skins, like crocodile, lizard, snake and stingray.  Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion, clarified that “we did it because it’s in the air, but it’s not an air people imposed to us,” also citing “a problem of supply" as a motivation. According to Pavlovsky, the brand will be focussing on the research and development “agri-food” materials and leathers to replace exotic skins.