All photos in the blog post are courtesy of Fashion Hayley. You can read her blog post on last night here.
Animal liberation protesters from PETA last night crashed the opening parade at Melbourne Spring Fashion Week. During the Rachel Gilbert section of the parade protesters carrying posters that read ‘Rachel Gilbert: Animal Killer,’ jumped on to the catwalk and stood up in the crowd singling out fur wearing attendees.
The show was stopped due to ‘security concerns’ much to the delight of the protesters who ended up being bombarded with abuse from certain members of the audience who called them ‘fat pigs,’ amongst many other names that won’t go into print here on Lady Melbourne.
I was sitting front row at the time and across from Micha from Raw Blog who was singled out by the protesters for wearing fur. Daniel from Fashionising sitting next to her tweeted, ‘No slim girls PETA?’ which has seen no end to being circulated via social media sites for it’s flippant tone and reference to plus size in climate where the issue is hot property. A follow up tweet from the man in question says ‘I’m polite but not politically correct,’ in reference to an interview he just gave to reporters on the subject. No doubt a ‘watch this space’ topic!
MSFW organisers announced to the crowd to remain seated and that the protesters had a right to be there peacefully. I can also report that no one was injured or harmed during the protest.
So now the background is out the way, what was the protest actually about?
Designer Rachel Gilbert although not showing it last night reportedly uses fur in her collections. PETA was there to make sure we all knew about it and to bring the issue of using fur in the fashion industry to the spotlight.
Standing the issue of fur, the wearing of it and it’s manufacturing aside, I do believe that we all have the right to protest and that sometimes disruption is the most powerful tool in your arsenal. What was equally as shocking as the parade being crashed last night was the torrid of abuse from some of the audience from fashion designers and industry stalwarts in particular. It was nothing short of ugly all round.
What do you think? Should PETA have taken a different approach to effect the workings of parts of the fashion industry?
29 comments
the photo is pretty funny- there’s someone sitting in the front row with a fur coat!!!
This article appears neutral but we it’s quite clear you are mocking the protester’s with your very generalised comments. Is being a fashion slave more important than being a good reporter?
T.R.I as Lilo has said, it actually takes more chemicals to preserve fur than to make synthetics. It also takes overall 60 times more energy to make clothes out of real fur, than to make synthetics. Perhaps you should do your research before commenting on something you have no idea about. I also wonder what excuse you will come up with to support fur now that you know it is both environmentally damaging and inflicts extreme cruelty on animals…all for the sake of “fashion.”
Wow it looks like they made an impression so good on them! Why harm an animal just for fashion? It’s completely unnecessary. Thanks for sharing this Lady M. x
RE My comment above- should read “NON-impartial reporting”.
Actually the tanning agents used to preserve skin to make leather have a much greater negative impact on the environment than synthetics. No one here is claiming to be ethically perfect, that’s an impossibility, the PETA crew are just raising awareness around what is an incredibly cruel/unnecessary industry. It’s counter-productive to engage in mud slinging. Honestly, this has been a totally uninsightful “discussion”, or sadly insigthful. I haven’t decided.
Maybe someone should tell that fugly protestor that her fugly boots are also made out of an animal’s skin… unless it’s cheap synthetic rubbish which means she contributed to the pollution of our environment when all the residues of the chemicals needed to create them are thrown in the sea killing MANY MANY MANY other animals… oh! and they are probably made by a Chinese child earning less than $0.50 instead of being at school.
I assume this only lasted a minute of so. WHile I think PETA has an important role to play, it would have been nice if you could have posted a bit about the actual event itself also.
Before we go too far with the mud-slinging, I didn’t mean to imply that animal rights supporters (or vegans – don’t know where that came in, last I checked the terms weren’t necessarily synonymous with each other) did not care about human rights, or that they bought sweatshop clothing.
I just find it interesting that the anti-fur movement gets more media coverage than the anti-sweatshop movement.
I will note that a lot of Aussie fashion bloggers in particular are very big on purchasing Australian made and designed clothes, but I feel there is less of a focus on those clothes which may be made overseas workers under good working conditions with sustainable materials.
That’s not to say that the ‘movement’ (for want of a better term) isn’t gaining attention or momentum. It’s just taken a while (and probably will take a while longer).
Sally- so let me get this straight… you accuse LM of “fence sitting” AND of “impartial reporting”? Clearly it can’t be both, so what point are you trying to make? Maybe you should just take your negativity elsewhere.
Carla- i think your comment on sweatshops is good & given these protesters were concentrating on the suffering of others for fur, maybe you should consider organising a protest against sweatshops. By the way, vegans do consider the suffering of human & nonhuman animals & try to purchase recycled clothing.
Provoking!
More interesting and thought-proviking than the any of the clothes that’s for sure…
Sally – “What was equally shocking” implies that PETA’s crashing was, you know, *equal*, and “nothing short of ugly all round” seems to include the protesters.
In addition, first you say Lady M’s fence sitting and now she’s not impartial?
I’m not sure what statement you’re trying to make here.
Well said sally and lilo-
Amelia- ‘What was equally as shocking as the parade being crashed last night was the torrid of abuse from some of the audience from fashion designers and industry stalwarts in particular. It was nothing short of ugly all round.’ Yep, totally sounds like impartial reportage to me!
The issue here is that the vast majority have no idea of how the fur is taken from the animal. Animals are skinned alive so as to keep the fur in tact and minimally bloodied OR they have an electric anal probe inserted and are shocked to death, then skinned as soon as the animal is electrocuted. Should PETA have protested this event, of course, but it’s possibly not the best way to get the message out there. At the end of the day it’s totally unnecessary to use our non-human brothers and sisters in order to look good 🙂
This is me on the runway protesting. My shoes are sinthetic thank you. Im being referee to as a fat pig and plus size when im a size ten???? This does not suprise me in this industry
And whoever asked about the security you where right they where also lousy. I was simply let in on request.
Sally- sorry, I didn’t realise Lady Melbourne was an opinion blog! Her piece is clearly reportage, written as a news story rather than a piece of opinion.
My thoughts exactly Anda! They have every right to protest, however this sort of stunt is disrespectful to the designer. Before anyone gives PETA the moral highground on women’s body issues I suggest you check out some of their ad campaigns.
Carla, would you believe my first date with my now husband was to a protest about sweatshops? Its something I am equally passionate about, but as you say it is becoming harder and harder to buy clothing made in Australia. I actually have some blog posts planned to talk about this issue and sustainable fashion in general in October with my role as the ambassador for “Buy Nothing New Month” that same month.
I do hope the protesters’ shoes are not made from leather, that would be ironic:))
Sally – sometimes not overtly stating your opinion actually allows more open, honest and intelligent debate on an issue. Particularly where there are such violently opposing views on the issue (bitchiness seems to come with the territory on this one, unfortunately).
Lady M – regardless of your reasons for not ‘choosing a side’ I respect you for pointing out that there was a poor response to what was perhaps a poorly-targeted protest.
Jenna also makes a good point about sweatshops. It’s sad that there are some who care so passionately about the welfare of animals but not also their fellow man.
Unfortunately there aren’t as many protests about sweatshop clothing, probably because many of us own a lot of it and don’t even realise it. This is partly due to saturation in the clothing industry (especially in Australia, where very little onshore manufacturing occurs), a lack of discussion in the media, and partly due to a lack of affordable alternatives. Of course there ARE alternatives, they are just harder to find and often more expensive.
I appreciate your unbiased reporting of this event, I guess that stems from your journalist background.
Personally, I’m all for fur if its vintage or from the a vermin animal. I don’t see it as any different from using leather products etc.
I think in general the fashion industry needs to put a lot more thought into where, how and by who their products are made. Disrupting their shows and yelling at them probably won’t achieve much change but it will get them alot of attention and people talking about their cause. Like us!
Hi Lady M:)
As a girl that never wears REAL fur…
I can totally understand their point of view!
I was a veggie for a long time as well!
It is a hard question, but hey even Daniel Johns one of your biggest rock stars (from Silverchair)goes green…so maybe more people aught to think about living creatures in a much more respecf way….
I am just saying!
Me smells a setup here! How did the protestors get such easy access to the runway? Or maybe the security was really lousy.
PETA have some valid points to make but not all animal fur/ leather/meat has been produced with cruelty to animals.
Nice fence-sitting Lady Melbourne. At least Fashion Hayley’s article had an opinion.
One wonders if these people would survive the same scrutiny they so readily and aggressively apply to others. It would be interesting to go through their wardrobes and see how many clothes they own that are manufactured in third world countries.
These idiots need to get a Life!