Vogue Shape Issue Promotes a Vegan Diet and a Fur Wardrobe?

Ah, the annual Vogue Shape issue. The time of the year when your mailbox is stuffed with a 332-page magazine to remind you it's time to start transforming "your sweater body to a swimsuit one."

But this year I might actually listen to the fashion mag's weight-loss tips, as Vogue consulted three vegan experts for their 10th annual Shape issue: health coach Latham Thomas, author Kathy Freston, and exercise physiologist Marco Borges.

Kathy Freston, author of The Veganist, had pretty simple weight-loss advice: "Go vegan!" Freston explains why a compassionate diet might help you lose weight: “Vegan food has a high thermic effect (calories burned as body heat during digestion), which amps up your metabolism.” She also advises to stay away from junk food, since chips and cookies can be vegan. Rats.

The body-conscious issue also publishes a letter to the editor which criticizes the magazine for a previous article on an Atkins-like diet plan, and states that most people are shifting to a plant-based diet for their health, for the environment and for animals. And in the issue's later pages, Vogue features the impressive frame of vegetarian supermodel Daria Werbowy, and says that Werbowy feels that going meat-free two years ago was "the most significant turning point in her health."

I appreciate the play that a plant-based diet is getting in the glossy mag, but the April issue is far from an animal-friendly one. It also promotes furs and exotics skins on many of its pages. With just a quick flip through the issue, I found a Mugler fur jacket, a Prada fur stole, a fox-fur coat, and an entire page devoted to one pair of gold python and leather stilettos. How can one be vegan while wearing mink?

The issue also features a four-page article on Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's fashion line, The Row, which boasts that the line offers: "crazily glamourous furs," and "glossily tactile crocodile and python bags." Might I remind Vogue that this is their a springtime issue ... isn't it getting a little warm for a cashmere and ermine overcoat made by the Olsen twins?

Vogue isn't entirely clueless on ethical fashion: Alicia Silverstone appears in the magazine, tucked in between the fox-fur stole and the snake-skin shoes. A pregnant Silverstone poses in a recycled silk dress at Animal Acres Sanctuary in Acton, California. A small article promotes Silverstone's vegan book and website, The Kind Diet and thekindlife.com. The one-page spread is titled: "Style Ethics."

This short article represents exactly what Vogue is lacking: consistent style ethics. The magazine promotes veganism and ermine fur in practically the same breath. It's insulting to their readers, assuming that Vogue subscribers are motivated solely by vanity when making diet and sartorial choices.

Vogue recognizes that a plant-based diet is good for the body, for the environment, and for animals. It's time that awareness and compassion is extended to animals used in fashion.

Sign our petition to tell Vogue to stop promoting fur in their magazine.

Photo Credit: ycgphotos