PETA returns to protest at Gucci show

After a series of runway appearances in past seasons, PETA activists are preparing to make their voices heard again at this Milan Fashion Week. On Friday afternoon, the animal rights organization will launch a new campaign aimed at the luxury group Kering during the Gucci SS25 show. PETA announced in a press release that they will protest the use of wild animal skins by the company outside the show venue, at the Triennale di Milano. The campaign was developed in response to the «unfulfilled promise» made by Kering's CEO, François-Henri Pinault, the statement continues, who said at the group's annual meeting last April that he would work with PETA to end the «violent slaughter of pythons used to make its accessories.» According to the organization, Friday's protest (scheduled for 2:30 PM, half an hour before the show begins) will not target Gucci but rather Pinault, depicted in the campaign's poster as Pinocchio.

 

 

«PETA is calling on Mr. Pinault to stop making empty promises and to eliminate wild animal skins from the collections of his group's brands», says PETA's Vice President for Europe, Mimi Bekhechi. «Including Gucci, as many other luxury brands have already done» According to information released by PETA regarding recent findings that motivated the creation of the new campaign, the organization specifically condemns the mistreatment of pythons at two Thai farms collaborating with Caravel tannery, owned by Kering, and the lizards kept in an Indonesian slaughterhouse confirmed to have supplied skins to the French luxury group. In an exclusive interview for nss, Patrizia Re, PETA's Corporate Projects Consultant, explained that Kering has repeatedly been contacted by the non-profit, both through private communications and during the group’s annual meetings. «This is why we are here,» says Re, «to denounce Pinauchio's empty promises.» Before finding out whether PETA activists will attempt to take the runway again this season - an idea Re responds to with a vague «wait and see» - the organization's representative explained that with Friday's protest, they hope to persuade the company to «impose an immediate ban on the sale of wild animal skins across all its brands,» following the 2017 fur ban. 

 

 

It seems that PETA has chosen to protest on Friday, during Gucci's show, both for the media coverage of the event (a year ago, some activists took the runway at the SS24 show, and did the same at Burberry in London, Coach in New York, and Hermès in Paris) and because of the brand’s involvement in ostrich slaughter, following a discovery by PETA Asia investigators, according to the non-profit. To justify last season's show-crashing, activist Camilli told nss that it was carried out to «inspire compassion and change.» Patrizia Re confirms her colleague's statement and adds that PETA continues to bring its message to fashion shows because it is a time when all fashion industry stakeholders are gathered. Protests like the one tomorrow, Re says, ensure «that the company is confronted with the conversation on animal rights and that key people in the fashion sector are made aware of these issues». Alongside condemning the use of fur, a material that has almost disappeared from runways except in rare cases, in recent years PETA has also started to protest against the use of wool and down.