“Meat-free out of love for animals and the environment” is the slogan of the joint campaign by designer Wolfgang Joop and the animal protection organization Peta. The accompanying motif was unveiled on social media and Peta’s website on Wednesday.
The time when Wolfgang Joop designed fur coats is long behind him. In a conversation with the animal welfare organization Peta published on Tuesday, the designer says that he created fur coats for a Frankfurt company in the 1980s. “For me, the word fur simply described a material,” says Wolfgang Joop. “One word was often kept secret: blood. However, this often stuck dried to the leather side of the skin that had been removed. That’s also when I stopped eating meat.”
“Eating meat is becoming obsolete, one way or another,” emphasizes the designer, but he is not only concerned with animal welfare, environmental protection also plays a major role in Wolfgang Joop’s decision to live a meat-free life. “We humans are also genetically mammals, we are omnivores. So we have a choice to eat meat or not. Because factory farming is a major factor why our environment and climate are being destroyed.”
Joop also criticizes the animal welfare organization for the fur industry, because “the argument that fur animals have always accompanied people in the cold” is no consolation for the designer, an opinion that is also increasingly popular in the fashion industry. More and more brands, including luxury labels – including Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci, as well as the outdoor brand Moose Knuckles – are now relying on alternatives such as faux fur, even if this is no less controversial from an environmental point of view.
