Queen Elizabeth II Is Going Fur-Free

If you go far enough into Queen Elizabeth II’s look book, you’ll find plenty of instances in which she’s worn animal furs during royal engagements. Every so often, she and her relatives have been criticized for it. But times are a-changin’, officially: Buckingham Palace has released a statement confirming that, if you do see the queen in some kind of fur going forward, it won’t be real.

Following the publication of a memoir by Angela Kelly, the queen’s personal adviser and dresser, in which she hints at the queen’s shift to faux fur, a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace told the Telegraph, “As new outfits are designed for the queen, any fur used will be fake.”

This echoes what Kelly reportedly wrote in The Other Side of the Coin: The Queen, the Dresser, and the Wardrobe: “If her majesty is due to attend an engagement in particularly cold weather, from 2019 onward fake fur will be used to make sure she stays warm.” In the book Kelly also revealed that the queen actually had a mink trim removed from one of her favorite coats.

The palace told Harper’s Bazaar that this rule doesn’t necessarily mean she’s getting rid of all real fur in her wardrobe, though: “We are not suggesting that all fur on existing outfits will be replaced, or that the queen will never wear fur again. The queen will continue to rewear existing outfits in her wardrobe.”

The change has been met positively by animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society, which released a statement that said, “We are calling on the British government to follow her majesty’s example and make the U.K. the first country in the world to ban the sale of animal fur.” PETA also dedicated a tweet to her royal highness following this announcement.

This year more brands and retailers—including Macy’s, Prada, and 3.1 Phillip Lim—have announced they would stop using and selling real animal fur.

Originally Appeared on Glamour