Anna Dello Russo urged to keep fur out of her auction

London - Anna Dello Russo, creative consultant and Editor-at-Large at Vogue Japan is being urged to keep fur out of her upcoming wardrobe auction at Christie's in Milan.

The fashion icon is set to auction offer a large part of her personal fashion wardrobe, which she has acquired over the last 30 years, in order to pass her archive onto a new generation. The auction, set to take place during the opening night of Milan Fashion Week, will include 30 of Dello Russo's most famous looks and the starting price for each piece will be 50 euros. In addition, Dello Russo also plans on selling at least 150 pieces online via Net-a-Porter. Profits from the auction will be donated to a Swarovski fund for fashion students at Central Saint Martins.

Following the announcement of Dello Russo´s auction, animal rights organization PETA sent a letter to the fashion editor asking that she refrains from including any fur garments in the auction. Instead, PETA is asking Dello Russo to donate her fur pieces to their fur amnesty programme, which donates furs to animal shelters to be used as bedding or gives them to shelters to be given to homeless and refugees in need.

"[A]s you've said you're moving away from wearing fur, we hope you'll refrain from including your fur garments in this auction," writes PETA Director Elisa Allen. "Your donation would not only help animals or humans in need but also send a compelling message to others that fur in fashion is no longer acceptable," PETA adds that a number of leading designers from Giorgio Armani and Michael Kors to Gucci are banning fur, with 86 percent of Italians opposed to it.

The letter concludes, "We hope you'll consider using your influential platform to send the powerful message that the only place left for fur in fashion is in old back copies of Vogue."