Uncompromising UNIC response to Stella McCartney
To the surprise of no one, fashion designer Stella McCartney has used an event on the fringes of the COP26 conference in Glasgow to renew her criticism of leather.
She set up an exhibition at one of the city’s art galleries to exhibit alternative materials that she is using in some of her products. Forbes reported that Ms McCartney had used the event to launch a petition “to demand governments ban the use of leather”.
In Italy, national newspaper La Repubblica asked the director general of national tanning industry association, UNIC, Fulvia Bacchi, for her reaction. Ms Bacchi was forthright in her answer.
She said: “Our industry is part of the circular economy too. As long as there is a meat industry, there will be hides that have to be recovered.”
Pressed for a response to Stella McCartney, Fulvia Bacchi said the London-based designer had been attacking the leather industry for years and that UNIC had had enough of it. “Carry on making your bags out of plastic and leave us in peace,” she said.
