While many of us are hitting parties and watching the runway shows on fashion websites, Joshua Katcher is out on the streets sneakily sneaking compassionate content into the hands of the careless and narcissistic. Katcher, deemed, “The New Sexy Vegan” by UK’s The Guardian and a “Vegan superstar” by Oprah.com, and creator/author of The Discerning Brute blog, the esteemed online source for fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man, has produced two meticulously produced and fantastically designed limited edition print magazines for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, in support of his PINNACLE: Reinvent the Icon campaign.
The campaign is an image-driven, hard-hitting, cool-looking, and sexy initiative to educate the style-savvy about the true meaning of fur.
Check it out;
The initiative is supported by designers including VPL by Victoria Bartlett, Stella McCartney, John Bartlett, Ashton Michael Black Label, Vaute Couture, Olsenhaus, Cri de Coeur, Valerie Rubinaccio, Melissa Plastic Dreams, La Ruicci, Eairth, and Dirty Librarian Chains.
The digital editions of the magazine are both available here, but in person they are large, shiny, and amazing to behold. These two volumes are as we speak being distributed at fashion shows and via pop-up locations throughout the week, placed to draw attention to the PINNACLE campaign via peaceful, creative means. The campaign invites creatives from across-the-board industries to interpret the iconic “NO-FUR” pin and message in their own terms, whether it takes the form of a mass produced pin, or a one-off art piece. VPL by Victoria Bartlett, John Bartlett, and renowned artist Peter Max are among those who have already committed to create an accessory with this message of compassion. The campaign also strives to share with the public that cruelty-free fashion is style-desirable through stunning editorials and the forthcoming series of full-color print magazines.
Joshua comments about the timing of the magazines’ release in relation to Fashion Week:
“The fashion industry, which often employs the edgy and exciting iconography of the rebel, is the perfect context in which to finally introduce a visual discourse that is the real rebel. It presents an environment of runways flooded with more fur than ever before.” He continues, “The incredible cruelty and frivolous use of animals inherent in fur production cannot stay hidden forever – nor can superior, gorgeous, lux, and ever-evolving alternatives stay on the sidelines.” Long before Norway banned fur from Oslo Fashion Week and even before Christy Turlington would “Rather Go Naked” for PeTA—the original anti-fur accessory was a pin designed in the 1970s with the message “Real People Wear Fake Fur” for the World Wildlife Foundation. Actress-legend Mia Farrow and Academy Award-winning composer Andre George Previn appeared in some of the first anti-fur ads for the campaign in the ‘70s. But even as early as the 1920s, when raccoon fur coats were all the rage, Broadway starlet Minnie Maddern Fiske took up vocal opposition to fur on behalf of animals trapped or farmed for their pelts.
PINNACLE is part of a growing consciousness about the realities of fur that can be seen in tangible legislation, media, and societal response.
Recent reactions to the use of fur in fashion include: ·
- Oslo’s ban of fur at Oslo Fashion Week
- Amsterdam’s Fur Free Fashion Initiative
- Finland and Norway’s movement towards banning fur production
- Denmark’s societal and political uproar concerning terrible conditions on mink farms
- West Hollywood, CA’s push to become the first fur-free city
- Ongoing investigations revealing the selling of real fur (often cat and dog) as faux
- New York Times expose of fur organizations to bribe fashion students and Designers
- President Obama’s signing of the Truth in Fur Labeling Act into law
Both PINNACLE magazines feature exclusive iconic images of committed vegan models styled in beautiful, cruelty-free clothes. Behind the gloss and uber-beauty is an essential message: that fur no longer communicates security, luxury, wealth, taste, class, or any legitimate claim to rebelliousness. Its only message is that the person wrapped in dead animal pelts is either ignorant or indifferent to cruelty.
The community of industry professionals involved with PINNACLE: Reinvent The Icon is growing, and Joshua is continually seeking designers, stylists, artists, models, writers, photographers, makeup artists, hairstylists and other fashion industry pros to contribute to the campaign. If you are interested, or to request a review copy of PINNACLE, email Maya Gottfried at [email protected].