Irina Shayk Defends Controversial Animal-Head Dresses in New Schiaparelli Couture Collection

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Monday's Schiaparelli show in Paris sure did cause a stir.

Creative director Daniel Roseberry sent a few of his models down the runway wearing life-size — and lifelike — animal heads on their dresses. He even gave Kylie Jenner a dress of her own to wear in the front row at the show.

And while the animal heads were all manmade and didn't include any fur, they have drawn up quite the discussion about what they represent. Irina Shayk, who wore one of the lion heads down the runway, is standing up for the fashion house amid the backlash.

Irina Shayk/Instagram

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"I support these incredible artists who worked tirelessly, with their hands, using wool, silk, and foam, to sculpt this embroidered Lion, and image of Pride, An image that @schiaparelli invokes while exploring themes of strength," she wrote on Instagram, adding that she's "honored to have been called on" to be a part of the show.

The Schiaparelli show's animal heads included not just a lion, but also a wolf and a snow leopard — worn by Naomi Campbell and Shalom Harlow.

Jenner pointed out in an Instagram showing off the dress that the realistic lion was a "faux art creation," but plenty of commenters on her post and on Shayk's are calling out the designs for promoting animal trophy hunting — no matter what the dresses are made of.

PETA shared a video on Instagram of the show, applauding Schiaparelli for taking the first step toward an animal-friendly garment but asking the fashion house to take its "creativity" even farther to be truly vegan.

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In a statement provided to PEOPLE, the organization continued the thought, saying, "The 'heads' that these garments are adorned with look so realistic that it comes as no surprise that Schiaparelli's collection caused such an uproar. PETA is grateful that the show sparked such a robust conversation about the violence of trophy hunting and the cruelty connected to the materials in these pieces that were actually stolen from animals: wool and silk."

Schiaparelli reiterated on Instagram in all caps that no animals were harmed in creating the realistic animal heads for the show. They were created from "hand sculpted foam, wool and silk faux fur, and hand painted to look as life-like as possible," the fashion house added of the pieces inspired by the three beasts in Dante's Inferno.

Supermodel Christie Brinkley chimed in on the debate, commenting on one of Schiaparelli's Instagrams to call the pieces a "fashion FAUX 'PAW.'" She called the designs "sickening," adding that an animal pelt is a "symbol of human's cruelty and ignorance."