Fashion giant Saint Laurent to ban use of fur in 2022

Yves Saint Laurent (pictured), who founded the eponymous fashion house, died in 2008

The luxury French fashion brand Saint Laurent will stop designing clothes using fur from next year, its parent company Kering has said.

Another Kering brand, Brioni, would also be fur-free by the autumn 2022 collections, the firm said.

Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault said the world "has changed".

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) welcomed the move after what it called a "decades-long" push to get Kering to ban the use of fur.

"Nobody with a heart will wear fur. No designer with any sense will touch it. Any fashion house still selling it in 2021 is an embarrassment," Peta said in a statement.

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Saint Laurent and Brioni were the last of Kering's brands to ban the use of fur: Gucci, Balenciaga, Bottega Venata and Alexander McQueen all do not use fur.

"When it comes to animal welfare, our Group has always demonstrated its willingness to improve practices within its own supply chain and the luxury sector in general," Mr Pinault said.

"The time has now come to take a further step forward by ending the use of fur in all our collections. The world has changed, along with our clients, and luxury naturally needs to adapt to that."

Peta said it had taken becoming a Kering shareholder and a letter, written on their behalf from the actress Gillian Anderson ahead of the 2021 annual meeting, before Kering declared itself fur-free.

And it has called on Louis Vuitton to follow Saint Laurent and ban fur. "Why is Louis Vuitton still keeping skins of tortured animals in its collections?" Peta said in its statement.

Louis Vuitton's parent company, LVMH, told AFP news agency that its fur products were being made "in the most ethical and responsible way possible" and it would not use fur from endangered species.