Fur set to fly over McCartney advert

SHE is the ultra-hip fashion designer who wears her animal rights principles splashed across her chest. They are the money men backing her new label while simultaneously making millions from their catwalk collections of fur and leather.

But now Stella McCartney, the British designer who recently signed up to design for Gucci, is courting controversy with her employers and across the fashion world by fronting a shocking new anti-fur advert.

The 30-year-old daughter of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney will star in the cinema broadcast - expected to shock movie-goers with its brutal messages of how animals are killed for their skins - along with her celebrity friends Jude Law and Sadie Frost.

Geri Halliwell and George Michael are also being tipped to appear in the advert for the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - PETA.

However, the commercial is being produced only weeks after the Milan fashion show displayed Gucci’s 2001 winter collection of floor-length Mongolian fur coats and men’s jacket collars trimmed with fox fur.

McCartney’s forthcoming attack could provoke allegations of hypocrisy given that fur is such a key part of the Gucci range, whose success has allowed the company to give the designer her own range.

In 1997 Naomi Campbell was sacked as the figurehead of PETA for wearing fur in the Fendi show, although she insisted she had no choice and was just doing her job.

Nonetheless, Gucci insists that the company has no problem with its most high-profile designer attacking one of its most successful products. "The Stella McCartney label is part of Gucci, but she leads it creatively," said a spokesperson. "We believe she is a very talented designer who will continue to be successful. The Gucci label, which includes the use of furs and leather, is completely separate."

McCartney’s very public stance has come as something of a shock to the fashion world, which had begun to believe she had toned down her attitude when she left Chloe for the Italian label.

Her reluctance to work with furs or leather proved a sticking point at the French fashion house, but when her final show for Chloe featured models wearing fake fur coats, it was interpreted by many as a sign that she was prepared to move away from her previous idealism.

Gucci managed to strike a deal with McCartney which meant she could avoid working with animal skins by designing for her own label within the fashion house rather than taking the place of the label’s designer, Tom Ford.

Hopes that she would succeed Ford, allowing him to concentrate on creative directions for the Gucci group’s new acquisitions such as Yves Saint Laurent, foundered because of her hatred of pelts.

The fashion world has had a love-hate relationship with fur. In the 1980s it was anathema for designers to use it and models to wear it. David Bailey created a storm when he photographed a model dragging a fur coat spilling blood along a catwalk, and supermodels of the time declared they would rather be naked than wear fur. But since 1990 it has undergone a resurgence.

Unlike other fashionistas who have returned to the fur-lined fold though, McCartney has stuck to her principles. Her staunch views were instilled in her and her photographer sister Mary, who has also produced work for anti-fur group Respect For Animals, by their vegetarian mother Linda .

Linda, who died in 1998, gave generous support over many years to animal welfare groups, including her close friend Carla Lane’s Sussex animal sanctuary, and launched her own range of vegetarian ready meals.

It was her staunch beliefs that converted Paul McCartney - and then their children - to vegetarianism.

Stella McCartney has already been involved with other campaigns, narrating a fur farm video for PETA which was sent to designers and the House of Commons.

She has also asked British Airways to stop using leather seat covers and in 1998 challenged Prime Minister Tony Blair in a letter to keep a promise to ban fur farms.

McCartney said that being vegetarian made her a better person and that the current revival of fur was "a sick, twisted little fashion moment. You see women in huge fur coats with poodles and you think, ‘Where’s the difference between a poodle and your coat?’ It really gets me down.

"All I’m saying is that you don’t have to use real fur and real leather when fake looks just as good."

Her father added: "She could take the easy route and use fur, but she’s too ballsy and too sensible and way too cool to do that. She’s ballsy enough to tell Madonna off for wearing fur in public and in private."

However, Stella’s views have come under attack from other designers including Chanel’s Karl Lagerfield, who said: "Her fur story bores me to death. It’s easy to say ‘no fur’ if you are the daughter of a rich man."

Even younger designers see anti-fur protesters as belonging to a previous generation. Tristan Webber, who has recently shown finely-worked mink tops and trims on long wool coats, said: "For me, farmed fur is no different to leather, which I also specialise in. The moral issues were worked through in the late 1980s."


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