Milan Fashion Week to encourage its designers to go fur-free
New guidelines will recommend designers not use animal fur in their collections.
Credit: DxE
This week, Italy's national fashion body Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana announced new voluntary guidelines, coming into effect in September this year, that will discourage designers showcasing at Milan Fashion Week from using animal fur.
While not a full ban on fur, this new directive is a "best practice recommendation" that will also see the CNMI itself refraining from using animal fur in its promotional content.
The announcement follows stricter no-fur policies from the Fashion Weeks of London, New York, and Copenhagen.
With these new directives, Paris Fashion Week will be the only major fashion event to not have taken any stand against fur at all.
“The adoption of these guidelines represents a further step in the path of responsibility and sustainability that Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana has pursued for more than 10 years in support of Made in Italy," said president Carlo Capasa. "This initiative confirms CNMI’s intention to accompany the evolution of the fashion system with balance and awareness, in coherence with the strategic direction we are pursuing,”
“The CNMI guidelines will help make the Milan Fashion Week runways become fur-free. This guidance is an ethical and responsible choice, consistent with the sustainability commitments made by its members, most of which have already banned animal fur. Meanwhile, the few that still use fur, in keeping with the commitments made by Camera Moda, will be encouraged to eliminate it,” said Simone Pavesi, head of animal-free fashion at Italian animal rights group LAV, who worked with the CNMI on this decision, alongside Collective Fashion Justice and Humane World for Animals.
These new guidelines define fur as animal skins with hair derived from animals bred or trapped primarily for fur production, such as mink, chinchilla, coyote, fox, and rabbit.
The guidelines have exemptions such as shearling, fur from animals raised primarily for the food industry rather than for fur alone, vintage fur, Indigenous subsistence hunting practices and faux materials.
Some activists noted that the announcement falls short of a full ban - but many welcome the decision anyway.
"Without a fur-free policy like those in place at New York and London Fashion Weeks, there is no guarantee that cruelty will be excluded from Milan’s runways, but we hope this anti-fur statement encourages greater use of next-generation biomaterials, which are both beautiful and responsible," said Emma Håkansson, founder of Collective Fashion Justice.
Credit: Biofluff
The materials Håkansson refers to include ECOPEL’s 100 percent plant-based Flur material, as well as BioFluff’s Savian fur, made from hemp, nettles, and linen. Both are entirely plastic-free and biodegradable.
Many Italian designers have already banned fur from their collections - some of the best-known names include Gucci, Armani, Versace, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and Max Mara. The majority of brands (with a handful of exceptions such as Fendi) on the event's schedule have been fur-free in recent years. Italy banned fur farming in 2022. In the most recent decade, the production of fur from certain animals has collapsed by over 80 percent, due to a rapidly dwindling demand.
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