Kylie Jenner’s ‘Lion Head’ Dress: Why Everyone Is Worrying About the Wrong Animal

Kylie Jenner turned up at Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week wearing a dress with a “lion head”. While the lion wasn’t real, some corners of the internet argue that this fashion statement glorifies trophy hunting.

If we can celebrate a leopard-print faux-fur coat as progress, we can also applaud a hyper-realistic faux lion head. It’s innovative and shows that where there’s a will, there’s a way to mimic the beauty of other animals without killing, decapitating, or skinning them.

But even though designer Schiaparelli was adamant that “no animals were harmed” for the dress, make no mistake – the look is far from cruelty-free. According to the designer, the lion head was made of “foam, wool and silk faux fur”, meaning sheep suffered and silkworms were boiled alive to create it.

Wool kills

From selectively breeding sheep for profitable characteristics, mutilating their tails and hindquarters, shearing them violently, and slaughtering when them when their coats become brittle, the wool industry is just as cruel as the fur trade.

Sheep can reach 14 years old, but in the wool industry, they’re lucky if they live even half of that time.

What’s wrong with silk?

Silk is the fibre that silkworms weave to make cocoons. Roughly 3,000 silkworms are killed to make a single pound of silk.

As part of the moth family, the worms go through the same stages of metamorphosis – egg, larval, pupal, and adult – that all moths do in nature. Imagine resting while completely vulnerable, awaiting a magnificent metamorphosis, only to be violently boiled or gassed alive.

We’re urging Jenner and Schiaparelli to extend their creativity and compassion to all animals. Fashion is about innovation. It’s time to leave all animals off the runway.