Chanel ends use of exotic skins in its fashion range - BBC News
The French fashion house becomes the first to turn its back on exotic pelts like snake and lizard.
Chanel has become the first luxury fashion house in the world to stop using exotic animal skins, like snake, crocodile, lizard and stingray.

The company's head of fashion, Bruno Pavlovsky, said it had become harder to source such pelts ethically.

He also included fur in the list, of which Chanel uses little.

Although Chanel's designer Karl Lagerfeld insisted the move was made independently, animals rights groups hailed the decision.

Peta said in an Instagram post "2018 is THE YEAR for designers coming out of the stone age".

This Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by peta This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Mr Lagerfeld and Mr Pavlovsky spoke to industry publication Women's Wear Daily about the decision.

"We did it because it's in the air, but it's not an air people imposed to us," Mr Lagerfeld said, although he noted "there was not much fur" in Chanel's work to begin with.

Python skin bags were reportedly taken down from the Chanel site on Tuesday, but Mr Pavlovsky said it would take a while for existing products to leave their shops.

The company would now focus developing leather and other material from "agri-food" industries, he said.

Other luxury brands have also stopped using fur but campaigners hope they will follow Chanel in abandoning exotic skins.

This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Critics and supporters of the fur trade speak out