Matt Sarafa Partners With PETA for Faux-Fur Collection

Sales of Special-Edition Cruelty-Free Coats Will Benefit Group’s Work to Help Animals

For Immediate Release:
December 15, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

With holiday shopping in full swing, PETA and local young designer Matt Sarafa have you covered with Matt Sarafa X PETA, a new limited-edition line of faux-fur bomber-style jackets and matching facemasks. A portion of the proceeds will support PETA’s vital work to help animals.

Images available here and courtesy of Matt Sarafa

“Today, I stand with PETA to say that I am proud to wear fake!” says Sarafa. “Rather than being ashamed or trying to disguise something to make it look like real fur, let’s make wearing faux the new, responsible norm.”

“This luxurious vegan bomber will encourage everyone to ‘go faux’ for goodness sake,” adds PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is delighted to team up with Matt Sarafa to spread the message that killer looks shouldn’t actually kill anyone.”

PETA notes that most animals used for fur spend their entire lives inside cramped cages, where they frantically pace back and forth, gnaw on the bars, and mutilate themselves before they’re electrocuted, gassed, or poisoned. Those who are trapped in nature may suffer for days before trappers arrive to shoot, strangle, beat, or stomp them to death.

Fur farms have also been hotspots for COVID-19. Denmark started killing all 17 million minks on its fur farms after a mutant strain of the virus spread from minks to humans. The virus has also been found on fur farms in Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden as well as in Michigan, Oregon, Utah, and Wisconsin.

For these reasons and more, Sarafa concludes, “It’s time to be supporters of animal rights and rock faux-fur apparel and accessories as badges of honor.”

Sarafa is the youngest designer to have ever shown work at the Los Angeles, New York, and Paris fashion weeks. Since he first appeared on Project Runway: Junior, his designs have been featured in Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Elle and have been worn by celebrities such as Tyra Banks, Big Sean, Doja Cat, and Iggy Azalea. In addition to receiving impressive accolades in fashion and design, Matt can often be seen on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.