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Humans of Bombay CEO Karishma Mehta to sell her Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada bags and shoes: 'It guts me to...'
Humans of Bombay founder and CEO Karishma Mehta said proceeds of the sale of her luxury leather goods will go to animal welfare NGOs.
Karishma Mehta, founder and CEO of Humans of Bombay, recently announced that she is selling all her luxury leather goods as she embraces a cruelty-free approach to fashion starting this year.
Mehta said she has decided to stop the purchase of leather of any kind and also, sell all the leather items she owns, the proceeds of which will go towards animal welfare NGOs.
The Mumbai-based entrepreneur posted photos of her luxury shoes and bags on Instagram on Wednesday. The photos revealed her collection of Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Yves Saint Lauren (YSL) and Fendi bags and shoes.
"As a vegetarian, I won’t eat meat because it doesn’t sit right with me to consume a living being. How then can it sit well with me to partake in a market that prides itself on being “luxury” by levying their premium-ness on the quality of animal being skinned?" she said in the post.
Several users commended Mehta for her decision to go leather-free.
Take a look at her post:
Mehta, who founded Humans of Bombay (HOB) in 2014, has interviewed people from all walks of life for her hugely popular online storytelling platform that has over 2.8 million followers on Instagram. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Ratan Tata are among the personalities she has interviewed on her platform.
Last year, Mehta was at the centre of a controversy after Brandon Stanton, the founder of Humans of New York (HONY), accused her of copying its format. His remarks came after HOB filed a copyright infringement case in the Delhi High Court against another online storytelling platform, People of India (POI).
HOB hit back at Stanton in an open letter, saying his words were a “cryptic assault on our efforts to protect our intellectual property”
In a separate post, Mehta had said she never shied away from crediting her company's New York counterpart for the idea. ""...we have been inspired by HONY, and we will always be grateful to them for showing us what storytelling can do for a community," she said.
(Also Read: ‘Our story’: HOB founder Karishma Mehta pens note on controversy with People of India)
