International fashion and jewellery brand My Jewellery has joined the Fur Free Retailer programme, strengthening its commitment never to use or sell real animal fur.

With more than 60 boutiques across the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France, as well as more than 750,000 followers on Instagram, the Dutch brand My Jewellery has built a significant following, particularly among younger consumers. Its decision to join Fur Free Retailer sends another clear message to the fashion industry: there is no justification for animals to suffer and be killed for a fashion product that nobody needs.

My Jewellery on joining Fur Free Retailer:

“We consciously choose animal-friendly materials, which is why real fur is a prohibited material at My Jewellery and has no place in our collections. We have never used real fur and do not intend to do so in the future. Fur production involves a great deal of animal suffering and does not align with the choices we want to make as a brand.

“By joining Fur Free Retailer, we are reinforcing this commitment. Together, we are working to raise awareness and create a fashion industry in which there is no place for real fur. In this way, we are contributing to a fur-free future.”

My Jewellery now joins 1,695 brands and retailers worldwide that have made a formal commitment through Fur Free Retailer not to sell real animal fur, alongside major international names including Gucci, Prada, H&M, Daily Paper and Zalando.

Moranni te Winkel, Campaign Leader at Dutch animal welfare organisation Bont voor Dieren:

“When we approached My Jewellery about joining the Fur Free Retailer programme, we were delighted to learn that fur has been on the brand’s ‘banned materials’ list since day one. For a fashion brand that has grown so successfully in just 15 years, this shows that excluding fur was never a compromise, but simply common sense. We hope My Jewellery’s fur-free approach will inspire other fashion brands to realise that fur is not a necessity for creating successful, desirable fashion.” 

The announcement comes against the backdrop of a dramatic long-term decline in the global fur trade. Around 140 million animals were bred and killed for their fur worldwide in 2014; today that figure has fallen to around 20 million a year.

Around 20 million animals a year being bred and killed for their fur is still too high. Every company that rejects fur helps shrink the market for an industry built on unnecessary animal suffering, while political action remains essential to end fur farming and the trade in fur altogether.