SMCP, the parent group behind Sandro, Maje, Claudie Pierlot and De Fursac, has reaffirmed its intention to outlaw products using down and feathers by the fall/winter of 2023.

The declaration follows its pledges to stop the use of actual fur in 2019 and to ban exotic skins from collections in 2020.

Given that so many businesses have banned the use of fur in recent years, the animal rights organization PETA has turned its focus away from its campaign against the material's usage in clothing. These days, the organization mostly concentrates on prohibiting the use of other animal products, like leather and feathers.

There are many warm and effective vegan fillers on the market today manufactured from natural and recyclable materials that, unlike down, do not collect dust and mold and maintain their insulating capabilities even when damp. The North Face, Napapijri, Henrik Vibskov, and the Italian company Save the Duck, which was previously named Company of the Year by PETA US, are among the brands that use them.

In an e-mail to PETA France, SMCP said that their group is committed to have completely removed duck and goose feathers across its four brands by the autumn/winter 2023 season, and that it has already started "a shift in favor of materials allowing, among other things, to replace feathers and down in each of their brands" for "several seasons.

Yvonne Taylor, Director of Corporate Projects for PETA, said that SMCP's humanitarian decision is fantastic news for the birds who will be spared the misery of live plucking and a terrible death at the butcher. They applaud this decision and urge other companies to do the same in order to distance themselves from the exploitative and inhumane down industry.