Fashion Giant Armani to Ban Angora Wool
Clothing/Cosmetics Abuses Articles from All-Creatures.org

FROM VeganFTA.com
December 2021

The poor rabbits have their hair ripped out every three months or so, squealing in pain every time they are pinned down by farmers who roughly pluck the rabbits.

The Armani Group, the Italian luxury fashion house founded by Giorgio Armani, announced a ban on angora hair from rabbits in all its companies from winter 2022.

After a long campaign by animal rights organisations, the brands Georgio Armani, Emporio Armani, EA7, and Armani Exchange will become angora-free in 12 months or so, joining 300 other brands from around the world that have already done so (such as Gucci, Valentino, Calvin Klein, etc.).

Georgio Armani, who founded his high-fashion company with Sergio Galeotti in 1975, said:

“I am pleased to announce the abolition of angora wool from all the collections of the Armani Group, testimony to our tangible commitment in monitoring our production with respect to protecting the natural world. I have always believed in innovation and research of new materials and innovative methods for processing traditional raw materials.”

Mimi Bekhechi, PETA’s Vice President of International Programmes, said: “Today’s socially conscious fashion consumers want nothing to do with an industry that rips the hair out of fully conscious rabbits’ bodies.”

Angora wool is a fluffy fibre that comes from the soft, thick coats of angora rabbits kept in farms — mostly in China, but also in other countries such as Argentina, Chile, Czechia and Hungary. The poor rabbits have their hair ripped out every three months or so, squealing in pain every time they are pinned down by farmers who roughly pluck the rabbits. In 2013, undercover investigators for PETA conducted an exposé involving 10 different so-called “humane” Angora farms in China.

Armani banned animal fur from foxes and mink in 2016, but it carried on using wool from sheep, angora from rabbits, cashmere from goats, and mohair (which is sometimes called angora mohair but comes from goats). Now that five years later they have ditched angora from rabbits, Armani should continue this trend and eliminate the rest of animal hairs and skins from their collections sooner. Although the suffering of foxes, minks and rabbits in fibre factories is shocking and undeniable, we should not forget the suffering of cows, bulls, goats and sheep at the hands of the fashion industry to produce unnecessary materials the alternatives of which are easily obtainable.  

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