PETA’s Project Runway, the Sequel

Today, PETA’s Director of Media Relations, Michael McGraw, and Senior VP Dan Mathews gave a presentation to the entire student body of one of the world’s most prestigious design schools. They were in New York City at Parsons, The New School for Design . . . that’s right, the home of Project Runway.

For years, the fur industry has been so desperate that it has bankrolled a program at Parsons offering young designers free fur to design with and underwriting fashion shows for students who put fur on the runway. But three years ago under the tutelage of Project Runway‘s very own Tim Gunn, the school began giving PETA equal time. I thought it was pretty great how he described his decision to fashion rag Women’s Wear Daily,

“I felt it was important to give students both sides of the story and let them be aware of both sides of the issue.”

Tim Gunn: Make it work, people!
Credit: Renee Starbright/Creative Commons

Also exciting is the fact that cruelty-free designer Marc Bouwer is mentoring juniors at Parsons this semester as they work with cruelty-free fabrics, and their designs will be shown during the class’s year-end fashion show in April. I’ll keep you posted on that.

With Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, J.Crew and a slew of others all permanently going fur-free this year, and with the future leaders of fashion now getting educated on both sides of the fur issue in school, the future looks bleak for the fur pimps out there. And the future looks very bright for these little guys:

Credit: Roger Cullman/Creative Commons