After attacking Beyonce’s shoe maker, yelling at Kim Kardashian and slamming Stella McCartney, PETA is setting its sights on a new target: Oscar de la Renta. The organization claims a pair of ODLR shoes, currently for sale on Gilt, uses the skin of elephants. “By selling shoes made of elephant skin, both Gilt and Oscar de la Renta are complicit in the slaughter of these intelligent, social, and empathetic gentle giants,” a post on PETA’s website read. “It is guilt by association: Make sure that Gilt and Oscar de la Renta know it by sending a letter to the companies today!”
A representative from the fashion house immediately shut down the accusations, claiming the shoes were simply mislabeled: “This afternoon, PETA posted on its Web site a claim that Oscar de la Renta used elephant skin in our accessories products. In fact, this is not true, as Gilt Groupe has acknowledged that this resulted from them incorrectly labeling one of our products as being made from 100 percent elephant skin. They have acknowledged the mistake and have moved to correct it across their site. Unfortunately, many of their users have seen this and understandably are outraged, as are we. We do not and will never use elephant skin in any of our products.”
PETA now claims it will remove the damning post from its site. There’s no telling what the bad press may have cost the fashion house in terms of sales and reputation. At least women wearing Oscar de la Renta are no longer in danger of getting drenched in red paint.
[via WWD]
