Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to navigation
Elle magazine
Elle magazine has announced it will stop using fur in editorial and advertising content Photograph: Justine Cullen
Elle magazine has announced it will stop using fur in editorial and advertising content Photograph: Justine Cullen

Elle magazine to stop using fur in editorial and advertising content worldwide

This article is more than 2 years old

Magazine becomes the first major publication to ban fur content across all of its pages, saying it is rejecting animal cruelty

Elle magazine has announced it will stop using fur in all its editorial and advertising content worldwide, becoming the first major publication to do so.

The monthly lifestyle magazine, which originated in France and is owned by French media group Lagardère, has 45 editions around the world. It has about 33 million readers from Mexico to Japan, with 100 million monthly online visitors.

But Elle’s international director, Valéria Bessolo Llopiz, told an annual two-day fashion industry conference in Britain on Thursday that fur was no longer acceptable.

“The presence of animal fur in our pages and on our digital media is no longer in line with our values, nor our readers,” she said. “It is time for Elle to make a statement … rejecting animal cruelty,” Bessolo Llopiz told delegates at the Business of Fashion Voices 2021 event in Oxfordshire, southern England.

Instead, she said the magazine wanted to “increase awareness for animal welfare” and “foster a more humane fashion industry”.

The magazine has already dropped fur from 13 of its editions. Twenty more will drop fur from 1 January 2022 and the rest will start a year later. The move reflects the changing nature of consumer demand, Bessolo Llopiz told Agence France-Presse.

“Fur has become old-fashioned,” she said, noting many brands had gone “fur-free” years ago.

“We are in a new era and the Gen Z which is the golden target for fashion and luxury, has huge expectations in terms of sustainability and ethics,” she added.

Welcoming Elle’s decision, PJ Smith, director of fashion policy for the Humane Society of the United States, said he looked forward to other fashion magazines following suit.

“This announcement will ignite positive change throughout the entire fashion industry and has the potential to save countless animals from a life of suffering and a cruel death,” he told the conference.

“Fur promotions belong only in the back copies of fashion magazines from days gone by,” Elisa Allen, the UK director of animal rights organisation Peta, said.

She welcomed decisions by publications – including British Vogue, InStyle USA, Cosmopolitan UK, and the newly launched Vogue Scandinavia – rejecting fur on their editorial pages and expected the move to soon extend to advertising.

The decision comes as the fashion industry has faced pressure from animal rights activists to stop the use of real fur on humane grounds and amid mounting public opposition.

Smaller fashion weeks held in cities such as Amsterdam, Oslo, Melbourne and Helsinki have all banned fur but larger ones in Paris, Milan and New York leave it up to designers.

Many big names have already chosen to no longer use fur. They include Gucci, Versace and Prada, Burberry, Vivienne Westwood and Alexander McQueen, Donna Karan, DKNY and Michael Kors, as well as Jean Paul Gaultier and Balenciaga.

A 2020 YouGov survey found that 93% of British people refuse to wear natural fur while another by Research Co suggested that in the US, 71% opposed killing animals for their fur.

In Europe, an FOP poll indicated that 90% of French opposed the fur trade, while 86% of Italians expressed opposition in a 2019 survey by Eurispes. In a German poll by Kantar in 2020, 84% said cruelty towards animals and killing them for their fur was unacceptable.

Israel in June became the world’s first country to ban selling fur to the fashion industry.

The fur industry itself argues that its natural product is being replaced with synthetic fur made with plastics that damage the environment.

The French fur industry federation said in a statement on Thursday evening that it would “consider suing” the magazine’s platform for “refusing to sell”. The fur industry believes that the decisions of designers and consumers are being forced by “pressure from radical movements”.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Tipping point in decline of magazines as one large printer remains in UK

  • Big Issue North to close after 30 years

  • Gal-Dem, magazine for women and non-binary people of colour, to fold

  • Shares in Marie Claire publisher Future plunge as chief announces departure

  • Time’s up for Time Out as London print edition of magazine to be axed

  • Country Life publisher reeling after shareholder revolt over executive pay

  • UK magazine firm reverses staff advice to work in office despite Omicron

  • Country Life owner buys Dennis Publishing in £300m deal

  • Heir to O? Drew Barrymore launches lifestyle magazine

Most viewed

Most viewed