PVH Corp. Bans Exotic Skins After PETA Appeal

Parent Company of Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein Cuts Ties With Cruel Wildlife Trade After Experts Cite Epidemic Risk to Humans

For Immediate Release:
September 10, 2020

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

After over a decade of urging from PETA, PVH Corp.—the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein—has banned exotic-animal skins, telling PETA that the decision is part of its “long-term strategy to drive fashion forward for good.” The move follows discussions with both designers about the wildlife trade’s connection to contagious diseases like COVID-19. In thanks, PETA sent PVH a box of gourmet vegan chocolates.

Hilfiger tells PETA, “At Tommy Hilfiger, we’re committed to creating a better fashion industry by creating fashion that ‘Wastes Nothing and Welcomes All.’ We have always [taken] and will always take the environment, human rights, our community and related matters very seriously, which is why we don’t use fur or exotic skins in any of our collections. Together, we can drive fashion forward for good.”

The squalid, severely crowded, filthy conditions in which wild animals are raised and slaughtered for their skins are similar to those that gave rise to the novel coronavirus, and they pose a potential threat of future pandemics. PETA has documented not only cruelty to animals but also grossly unhygienic conditions on farms in the U.S., Africa, and Asia.

“PETA is toasting Tommy Hilfiger for banning exotic-animal skins from his collections,” says PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews. “Behind every crocodile-skin or snakeskin item is an animal who experienced a violent, bloody death. As wildlife biologists point out, in addition to being cruel and unnecessary, the capture, confinement, and slaughter of wild animals is what spawns pandemics like the one we’re all suffering through now.”

PETA and its affiliates have documented that in the exotic-skins industry, alligators’ necks are hacked open and metal rods are shoved into their heads; snakes are pumped full of water to loosen their skin, which is peeled off, often while they’re still conscious; and feathers are yanked out of ostriches while the birds are still alive.

PVH joins Brooks Brothers, Jil Sander, Chanel, Diane von Furstenberg, HUGO BOSS, Victoria Beckham, Vivienne Westwood, and many other companies in banning exotic skins.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.