Burberry reviews use of fur, full ban likely

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 7, 2018

Burberry has become the latest luxury label to rethink its fur policy and has launched a review. The combination of peer pressure as other luxe labels ban fur, ongoing anti-fur protests and crucially, the all-important Millennial consumer being largely anti-fur, are likely to have been the key drivers of the about-face.

The company confirmed to The Sunday Times that it’s reconsidering its use of fur, although the label has never been one of the biggest users of fur among designer labels.

In a statement, Burberry told the newspaper: “On the limited occasions… fur has been considered important to design, we have insisted that it is sourced from authorised, regularly inspected suppliers operating to high ethical standards. There wasn’t any real fur in Burberry’s September 2017 or February 2018 runway collections. We can confirm that we are currently reviewing our use of real fur.”

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The company was still selling fur pieces as recently as its spring 2017 collection, but its last runway show featured rainbow-coloured faux fur.

A raft of high-end labels including Gucci, Versace, and Michael Kors and its Jimmy Choo label, have gone fur-free in recent months, as has retailer Net-a-Porter.

Not that Burberry has yet opted for an outright ban, although the expectation is that this will follow soon. The company also said the review isn’t linked to the arrival of Marco Gobbetti as CEO or Riccardo Tisci as creative chief.