Miranda Kerr and the world's most furry bikini line

Miranda Kerr, really? We’re happy for you that you’ve just been named Esquire magazine’s sexiest woman alive and if you wish to mark that honour by stripping down to your underwear?

Your call. Whatevs.

But the fur coat (which by all accounts is real and even if it’s not, certainly APPEARS real and thus glamourises fur) is many shades of wrong.

The shoot certainly doesn’t appear to be particularly in keeping with the supermodel’s usual ‘be kind to yourself and the world’ message. (the interview that goes with the shots is interesting too….you can read Miranda’s comments including that she might have been a koala in a previous life here).

Nor, it seems, is it in line with her Australian employer David Jones’ anti-fur policy. Both major Australian department stores, Myer and David Jones have recently announced strong anti-fur positions.

Earlier this month Myer confirmed that they would be giving their customers what they wanted an instituting a full blown fur ban in their stores.

A spokesperson for Myer corporate affairs said: ‘More and more stores around the world have a no-fur policy and we took on board the feedback of customers. Myer is committed to building a socially responsible business and we do not condone the use of fur obtained by cruel means. Community views on the use of fur in merchandise have changed, regardless of the source of that fur.”

Well, good. And then there’s this…

It’s a long-standing PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals) tradition: get hot women to take their clothes off to draw attention to animal cruelty.

Many have a problem with this idea of using women’s bodies and sexuality as a way to draw attention to an unrelated cause (we wrote about THAT on Mamamia just last week and you should check it out here.)

But this latest PETA ad is a little bit different because it uses humour.

UK glamour model Joanna Krupa has taken her gear off for the latest PETA ad campaign but nudity sort of has a point this time (as do the “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaigns PETA often runs with nude female celebs).

The latest ad shows Krupa wearing a pair of sheer pink knickers with HUGE tufts of fur sprouting out the sides, mimicking a lady-garden that has grown wild and free. And long. The new headline reads: “Fur Trim: Unattractive”, followed by the tag line, “Don’t ruin your look with fur trim.”

Here’s a YouTube clip of Krupa during the making of the controversial ad campaign:

We asked PETA for a comment on Miranda’s shoot for Esquire, here’s what they had to say:

“Miranda has a cruelty-free cosmetic line and has not previously endorsed fur so we are working to establish whether this is indeed real fur and whether Miranda was aware of this. There is nothing sexy about skinning animals alive, so we hope Miranda was flaunting a fabulous fake.”

What do you think of PETA’s stop animal cruelty campaign always featuring semi-nude beautiful women? Do you think it adds strength to their message? Do you buy or wear fur?