The Birkin Bag has been a symbol of prestige and status for the luxury French fashion house Hermès since 1982. It carries the name of a world renowned actress and singer and is the staple handbag in celebrity tabloids and high society pages.

If you aren’t too familiar with the background of the bag, here is some information you may find useful:

• A coincidence of airplane seating placed the then Hermès Chief Executive, Jean-Louis Dumas, next to Jane Birkin who openly expressed her complaints about her small handbag, giving the CEO the brilliant idea to create a well crafted purse in which you can carry an exponential amount of things.
• The bags come in crocodile, ostrich, and lizard. The most expensive of these bags is the salt-water crocodile bag.
• The bags are handmade in France and held together by the company’s signature saddle stitching.
• The bags range from $10,000 to a striking $432,000.

So what went wrong? Well, like many other luxury fashion brands in the past, PETA got a hold of what was really going on with the “manufacturing” and did a bit of a background check on the iconic bag. Now before you look up the footage, I must warn you: It is extremely disturbing. I couldn’t get through all of it without closing my eyes in fear and shock. The video reveals the harvesting of crocodiles and the horrible practices the company is using to create more and more of these Brikin Bags.

Since the documentary has been released by PETA, Jane Birkin has decided to revoke the company’s rights to use her name for the handbag. The official statement from Birkin seems to be able give the company a chance to come back into her arms, but it definitely hit the brand’s status and accountability:

“Having been alerted to the cruel practices endured by crocodiles during their slaughter for the production of Hermès bags carrying my name … I have asked Hermès Group to rename the Birkin until better practices responding to international norms can be implemented for the production of this bag.”

Being a lover of the French fashion powerhouse, I truly hope that Hermès will open their eyes and halt the immoral creation of their beloved bags immediately.

Although we may loose the legendary bag, its can be a chance to create a vegan bag that could hold just as much importance in society and can become a new staple of the direction our world is headed. If Hermès is confident in it’s branding, then it shouldn’t be a problem. But the power of branding is an article for another time! But now is the time for positive change in the industry, so let’s start with the Birkin and work our way around fashion manufacturing standards.