Investing $360 In Hermès Stock, PETA Gains Insider, Shareholder Status

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The stake that animal rights group PETA has bought in French luxury brand Hermès is one single share costing $360. In buying the share, however small an investment, PETA will now have access to shareholder meetings and a range of new pressure tactics on Hermès management.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has launched a new awareness campaign to stop Hermès from using crocodiles and alligators in its iconic products, including its Birkin bags.

“PETA will be campaigning outside the company, and, as a shareholder, also working from the inside to demand a ban on exotic animal–skin accessories, including crocodile-skin bags and alligator-skin watchbands,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement on Thursday. Hermès has not yet responded.

It’s easy to dismiss PETA’s strategy as ‘fringe’ but the group’s end of 2014 report documenting alleged inhumane and ‘cruel’ treatment of both crocodiles and alligators at Hermes suppliers, prompted Jane Birkin, namesake of the company’s coveted Birkin handbag, to request the removal of her name from the ‘Birkin Croco’ until Hermès employs “better practices in line with international norms.”

The company responded to Birkin’s request, saying that they will investigate practices at the Texas farm Padenga Holdings, a public company, supplying their skins via Kariba, Zimbabwe.

In the company’s vision statement, it makes no mention of animals or the conditions in which they live or die, before becoming a handbag. Bloomberg reports that Padenga harvested 40,000 crocodiles last year.

Birkin bags are notably hard to come by, Style.com reported last fall that the Himalayan crocodile Birkin bag is believed to be the most expensive one ever sold, priced at $432,000.

The 30-centimeter diamond Himalayan Birkin is possibly the rarest and most desirable handbag in the world. This bag is made of Nilo crocodile, rendered in a subtle coloration that is meant to evoke images of the majestic Himalayan mountains. This dyeing process is painstaking and takes many hours to complete—the lighter the hue, the more difficult the process. The color pairs perfectly with 18-karat white gold hardware, which is itself studded with white diamonds. The cadena lock alone is comprised of 68.4 grams of 18-karat white gold and encrusted with 40 white round brilliant diamonds, totaling 1.64 carats. On the bag, three different structural elements of the Birkin—the Touret, the Pontets, and the Plaques de Sanglons—feature more than 200 diamonds for a total of 8.2 carats. This is arguably the rarest, most spectacular, and most jaw-dropping Birkin to ever be made.

Joaquin Phoenix Discusses Treatment of Reptiles in Fashion Industry

Helena Christensen Goes 'Into the Woods' Lensed By Yelena Yemchuk At Her Upstate New York Home For Porter No 10

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Helena Christensen Goes ‘Into the Woods’ Lensed By Yelena Yemchuk At Her Upstate New York Home For Porter No 10

Porter Magazine delivers a smashing issue No. 10 for Fall 2015 — one of the best editions of any magazine that I’ve seen in a long time. There’s nothing cutting-edge about it, but the editorials are varied and gorgeous!

Helena was also interviewed by The Telegraph in May 2015, and I love their opening:

In an age of extreme and widespread hyperbole, every catwalk regular whose name is vaguely recognisable is now casually referred to as a “supermodel”. But back in the 1990s, when the title was first coined, it was the sole preserve of a highly select set of women who dominated fashion and front pages, and grew to be so well known that their surnames became superfluous.

The Danish-Peruvian beauty joined Christy (Turlington), Kate (Moss), Naomi (Campbell), Cindy (Crawford) and Linda (Evangelista), regularly gracing the covers of Vogue, Elle and Harper’s Bazaar. An original Victoria’s Secret Angel, Helena once appeared on a 6x12m billboard in Times Square, naked but for a strategically placed banana leaf.

Lupita Nyong'o Joins NYC Public Theater's 'Eclipsed' In September 2015

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Lupita Nyong’o Joins NYC Public Theater’s ‘Eclipsed’ In September 2015Women

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o will make her New York stage debut in September.

The Oscar winner for ‘12 Years A Slave’, who is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. will star in ‘Eclipsed’, described as a story of survival and resilience as a woman suffering through the Liberian civil war in post-colonial Africa. The play was written by ‘Walking Dead’ actress Danai Gurira and will be directed by South Africa Liesl Tommy.She is a native of Cape Town, South Africa and a graduate of Newton North High School and Trinity Repertory Conservatory. Read on.