Pam and PETA push cruelty-free fashion
Pamela Anderson's new clothing line is crafted from animal-friendly materials
Erin Hanafy
Associated press
Tuesday, March 02, 2004
NEW YORK - Looks like PETA has, improbably, snagged a bunny. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, better known by its acronym PETA, has attracted support for its animal rights platform from fashion designers like Stella McCartney in the past. But the group's involvement in former Playboy playmate Pamela Anderson's upcoming clothing line will help take "cruelty-free" fashion to the masses.
Like fellow blond bombshell Brigitte Bardot -- who recently appealed to the president of China to end the practice of killing civet cats in the fight against the SARS virus -- beneath Anderson's glitzy exterior beats the heart of an activist.
The 36-year-old, B.C.-born actress says she worked with PETA from the beginning to ensure that animals are not harmed in the production of the Pamela collection.
"We're consultants," PETA vice-president Dan Mathews says. "She's always called us. Whenever she's asked to appear at a fund raiser, she makes sure it's not for an organization that funds animal experiments."
The group will continue to work with the licensor of the clothing line, an unprecedented role for the animal rights group whose role in fashion has been antagonistic in the past.
The group's members have been known to throw paint at fur coats, stage demonstrations outside stores that sell fur and jump on runways during fashion shows.
But the group's role in Anderson's line is part of a larger trend of working within the system of the fashion world. Instead of dousing fashionistas with paint, PETA recruited from within their ranks in September 2003 and persuaded model Fernanda Tavares to pose for anti-fur ads.
And instead of seeking attention by disrupting fashion shows outside the tents at Bryant Park in New York, the group has moved inside to get its message across. PETA and 7th on Sixth, which produces Fashion Week twice a year, agreed to a truce in 2003 long enough for the group to present the fall collection from "animal-friendly" designers Gaelyn and Cianfarani.
The group has long had an ally in Anderson. Her clothing line was five years in the making, partly because of her insistence on practices that meet with PETA's standards.
"I got involved with the wrong people, people who wanted to do it a certain way and wouldn't go along with being cruelty-free," Anderson said in a recent phone interview. In November 2003, Anderson signed a worldwide deal with United Licensing Group, headed by chief executive officer Jimmy Esebag, who helped license the Playboy name.
Anderson's first collection for fall consists of non-leather shoes and Ugg-style boots, lingerie made from all-natural fibres and clothing made without hurting animals, says Dan Mathews, PETA's vice-president.
"The fur thing is obvious to people but less obvious is the leather and the wool," Mathews says. PETA opposes the use of merino wool because the group believes sheep are hurt in some methods of raising and shearing the animals.
After the long ramp-up period, Anderson is eager to see the line in stores for fall. She sees the fall collection as a way to ease into the fashion business.
"I'm thinking that spring and summer may be my forte," the former Baywatch babe says with a laugh.
"I'm describing it as kind of winter beach style, so it's a lot of sweaters and jeans you can wear on the beach, and sexy shoes you can throw on and go to dinner," Anderson says. The fit of the jeans will be snug to the knee and made to fit a woman's body. "It's basically clothes that I want to wear."
In keeping with her California lifestyle, T-shirts and sexy comfort wear are a big part of the line, with special attention paid to fabric quality and elasticity. They're clingy but they won't "bag out," she says.
"I really made it for my lifestyle, which is a little bit of everything. I'm a very involved mom, I like to go to dinner with friends and then sometimes I like to be sexy," says Anderson.
Anderson's sexy side -- as well as her high-profile romances with rockers Tommy Lee and Kid Rock -- is known to most, but she is busy with several projects that don't require a pretty face.
In addition to overseeing her clothing line, Anderson is the voice of Stripperella on the animated Spike TV series, writes a column for Jane magazine and is writing two novels for Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Inc. The first, a roman a clef about Hollywood titled From the Waist Up, will be released this summer. The plot may sound familiar to Anderson's fans.
"Small-town girl comes to California, falls into a lot of different traps here and there, shoots for a very sexy magazine, meets powerful men. It's fiction!" she says, laughing.