A speech delivered by Princess Catherine Aga Khan on the occasion of the Design Against Fur Grand Prize Awards ceremony, Hôtel Plaza-Athénée, Paris, 14th October 2003

I come here this evening to thank the young artists who created these posters, showing the cruel fate of fur bearing animals. Their talent is worthy of the comprehension they have, faced by this grave problem of society.

I also thank the press for convening at this inappropriate hour, and who have had the kindness to join us just as the Fashion Week collections are in full swing.

I draw your attention to the presence of Anouk Aimée, without whom our first campaign would never have happened. Thank you, dear Anouk.

Finally, I thank all the friends who have inconvenienced themselves to support us this evening, and also my colleagues from Geneva, particularly Barry Gilbert-Miguet who has fought on behalf of animals for 25 years alongside my husband. It’s to continue his work that we are here tonight, because it’s thanks to my husband that I opened my eyes to animal suffering, since once I also wore fur. This evening is thus dedicated to him.

I can see only one advantage of age – that it confers upon us a freedom of expression so total that we can at last call a spade a spade and be proud of it. After this preamble, I’m going to give you some reflections of an old lady unworthy and politically incorrect.

It’s the period of the Paris collections and I recall with nostalgia the shows of Couture (as we rightly used to term it). Monsieur Balenciaga, Mademoiselle Chanel, Christian Dior, Jacques Fath, Madame Grès and others. With Monsieur Saint Laurent having unfortunately left the scene, “fashion” – in inverted commas – has become a free-for-all for most designers. I seize the opportunity of acknowledging with thanks the presence here of Frank and Isabelle Sorbier who are among the exceptions. This evening I do not address myself to the furriers but to the decision-makers of fashion, to the creators who every six months rival each other to offer to the public a perpetual masked ball which has no theme. This time, we were treated to a model walking on the catwalk on all fours, and another making faces at the public. Usually, fashion dressed, now it undresses. And there we are – suddenly we see these beautiful young girls who, at the risk of catching pneumonia, strut about as if dressed for the Crazy Horse Saloon, on the borderline of absurdity, bizarreness and, in any event, bad taste. Not content with this state of things, most of these creators or designers stick a bit of fur here and there by way of trim – obsolete and out of fashion.

Quite apart from the cruelty, the violent world in which we live every day does not look kindly upon fur coats, an exterior sign of ostentatious richness that is provocative and anachronistic. Couldn’t the designers take into account animal suffering and abolish the fur license? Financially, they could all permit themselves to do this. Everybody knows today that you can keep warm without wearing fur. And what fur? Dyed in all the colours of the rainbow, we can no longer distinguish real from false, or whether it is mink, rabbit, dog or cat… But, to bring a little optimism to these thoughts, imagine if all the designers of the world would join hands and, with the wave of a magic wand, wish to give women back their femininity, to make again beautiful suits, in beautiful materials, warm coats but without fur, evening gowns simple and elegant, etc. etc. etc.

So, let us dream…

I thank you for your attention.

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