Meet The Man Who Convinced Armani To Give Up Fur

Last week, Milan-based designer Giorgio Armani, he of the Brutalist suits and incredibly comfortable fabrics, announced he would no longer be using fur in his designs. He’s joining a growing number of designer labels like Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss that are choosing to break with old-school concepts of luxury and give fur the boot. Today, Dazed interviewed the man who convinced Armani to go furless: P.J. Smith, the executive director of The Humane Society who never thought he’d be working in fashion.

In the interview, Smith says fashion is falling behind other industries in terms of animal welfare. While Sea World is no longer breeding captive orcas (thanks, no doubt, to the outrage surrounding 2013 sleeper hit Blackfish) and CGI has so surpassed the performance abilities of real animals that Disney made an entire movie showing it off, the high-end apparel and accessories market has clung stubbornly to fur as a signifier of upper-crust inclinations. Read more at Esquire.