PETA U.K. Disrupts Pharrell Williams’ Paris Olympics Party Over Use of Wild-Animal Skins and Fur

For Immediate Release:
July 25, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Moments ago, two PETA U.K. supporters interrupted a star-studded Paris Olympics kick-off party to call out Pharrell Williams, host and Louis Vuitton’s men’s creative director, for his disgraceful use of wild-animal skins and fur in his collections. The animal defenders held signs reading “Pharrell: Stop Killing Animals for Fashion” in front of a packed crowd of attendees, including Anna Wintour, Charlize Theron, Serena Williams, and Lebron James, before being escorted out by security. The action is a part of PETA’s campaign to urge Louis Vuitton’s parent company LVMH, a sponsor of the Olympic Games, to ban fur and wild-animal skins.

Video of the disruption can be viewed here.

“While Pharrell lives it up at celeb-filled soirées, the vulnerable animals sentenced to die for his fashion choices languish in pain and filth on factory farms and at slaughterhouses, where they’ll be hacked to bits or skinned alive,” says PETA U.K. Vice President of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor. “PETA is calling on Pharrell to stop being complicit in cruelty and help pull Louis Vuitton out of the dark ages by shunning the antiquated use of animal skins and fur.”

A PETA Asia investigation into slaughterhouses in Indonesia that supply LVMH shows snakes being inflated with water, bashed with hammers, and cut with razors while likely still conscious. PETA entities have also documented how workers in the fashion industry hack at crocodiles’ necks and shove metal rods down their spines, chop off conscious lizards’ heads with machetes, and electrically stun ostriches before slitting their throats in full view of their terrified flockmates. Animals raised and killed for fur are confined to tiny, filthy cages before they’re electrocuted, bludgeoned, gassed, or even skinned alive.

PETA notes that many other major designers—including Mulberry, Victoria Beckham, Chanel, Burberry, Diane von Furstenberg, and Vivienne Westwood—have banned using the skins of reptiles or other wildlife and nearly all top luxury fashion houses have banned the use of fur.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.