Australian Fashion Week (AFW) has just banned all wildlife materials including fur, wild animal skins and feathers.
This comes after Australian Fashion Council CEO Jaana Quaintance-James wrote a new policy alongside the founding director of Collective Fashion Justice Emma Hakansson, which has since been posted on the AFW website.
AFW follows Melbourne Fashion Week, Melbourne Fashion Festival, Copenhagen and Berlin Fashion Week in enacting such a policy, with all of these policies developed with the support of World Animal Protection and CFJ.
London Fashion Week has also banned fur and wild animal skins, but CFJ claims they have yet to ban feathers.
AFW’s new Code of Conduct also includes encouragement that brands use sustainable animal-free materials, while stating an expectation that brands will set an animal welfare policy along with a strategy to implement it. This is the first Fashion Week event to do so.
“With Australian Fashion Week now led by the Australian Fashion Council, this new policy shows the Council is moving the Australian fashion industry in a more sustainable and ethical direction,” Hakansson said.
“Killing wild animals for fashion is unacceptable, particularly given the array of bio-based, sustainable and ethical materials that can be used in place of fur, skins and feathers for a similar visual effect.
“With all major Australian fashion week events now totally wildlife-free, our country’s fashion industry should be proud to be leading a global shift towards ethical and sustainable fashion.”
Hakansson also targeted Australian commercial industries that cage native crocodiles and shoot kangaroos for international fashion brands, saying there is no future for this kind of wildlife exploitation.
World Animal Protection Australia head of campaigns Suzanne Milthorpe said she and her team are seeing a domino effect of fashion events around Australia and the world rejecting exotic skins, feathers and fur.
“With this new wildlife friendly policy, Australian Fashion Week has joined the growing list of runways that are embracing innovative alternatives to cruelty.”