PETA Recognizes Balenciaga for Introducing Mycelium-based Leather Coat
LONDON — There is some positive news for Balenciaga amid ongoing controversy over two of its ad campaigns.
The brand was recognized by the animal rights organization PETA for its use of the mycelium-based leather Ephea on a coat that debuted in the fall 2022 collection.
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The Kering-owned brand was awarded the best luxury product award at the 2022 Peta Fashion Awards. A list of the winners was shared with WWD exclusively on Wednesday, days after the annual Fashion Awards at Royal Albert Hall on Monday in London.
Balenciaga isn’t the first luxury brand to work with mycelium. Earlier this year, Stella McCartney released a bag made from mycelium, or mushroom, leather made using organic material and minimal energy. She has been working with the California-based company Bolt Threads on the project.
Burberry scooped PETA’s best luxury moment prize for banning the use of exotic skin.
Burberry’s chief executive officer Jonathan Akeroyd said in May during an earnings call that the brand would go “the extra mile” for the environment, beginning with not using exotic skins in future collections.
Asked about the decision, Akeroyd said the company made very few products with exotic skins, but it was important “to put down a marker” and make a statement about not using the material. Burberry stopped using fur in 2019.
Copenhagen Fashion Week’s fur-free announcement in August won the best catwalk moment awards.
It was a big move for the organizer, considering the city’s long history with the fur trade. But it’s also a logical one. Kopenhagen Fur, the world’s largest auction house for furs, will close down by 2023 after Denmark’s government ordered a mass cull of the country’s mink in an effort to fight a coronavirus mutation in 2020.
Elisa Allen, director at PETA, said its own version of the Fashion Awards celebrates “the progressive brands dedicated to making a change for animals and the planet.”
“From fur-free catwalks to luxury fashion made with plants, the vegan fashion revolution is truly here,” she added.
Other brands recognized by PETA this year include the Leonardo Di Caprio-backed Løci, which nabbed the best vegan shoes awards. Nanushka won the best vegan material award for its vegan leather, Okobor, which it developed in-house.
The designer of the year award went to Sarah Regensburger. She presented a fully vegan collection during London Fashion Week in September. Piilgrim received the best menswear award.
Filmmaker Rebecca Cappelli was honored with the changemaker of the year award for her documentary “Slay,” which offers insight into the fashion industry’s exploitation of animals.
H&M was named “villain of the year” for reversing its bans on cashmere and mohair. The fast-fashion giant had agreed earlier that it will no longer sell products made from “conventional” cashmere and mohair after PETA investigations exposed the cruelty inflicted on goats.
But earlier this year, PETA called H&M out and accused the brand for reneging on its commitments and claimed that it is hiding behind “the deceptively named ‘Responsible Mohair Standard’ and ‘the absurdly named Good Cashmere Standard'” to continue offering products made with cashmere and mohair sourced from “untrained farmers who kill baby goats by using blunt force trauma and doesn’t require the certification of off-farm slaughter sites, which could be similar to facilities where PETA Asia eyewitnesses found workers hitting goats on the head with a hammer and slitting their throats,” Peta claimed.
PETA’s Allen added that “We urge H&M to come to its senses, do the decent thing, and ditch mohair and cashmere for good, as countless other companies have, in favour of vegan materials like those it already sells.”
Under PETA influence, Victoria’s Secret & Co., which owns Victoria’s Secret and PINK, has also banned cashmere.
WWD has reached out to H&M for comment.
