Humans of Bombay CEO Karishma Mehta to sell Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada bags and shoes: ‘It takes courage…’ trend

Karishma Mehta, founder and CEO of Humans of Bombay, recently announced that starting this year, she will be selling all her luxury leather goods in order to adopt a cruelty-free approach to fashion.

Mehta said she has decided to stop purchasing any kind of leather and sell all leather products she owns, with the proceeds going to animal welfare NGOs.

The Mumbai-based entrepreneur posted pictures of luxury shoes and bags on Instagram on Wednesday. The photos reveal her collection of bags and shoes from Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Yves Saint Laurent (YSL), and Fendi.

“As a vegetarian, I don’t eat meat because it’s not appropriate for me to eat living things. So how can I participate in a market that prides itself on being ‘luxurious’ by collecting taxes from them?” Does it make sense to me? Is the quality of the animal being skinned high quality? ” she said in the post.

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, which has more than 2.8 million followers on Instagram. Ta. Among the people she has interviewed on her platform are Prime Minister Narendra Modi and businessman Ratan Tata.

Last year, Mehta was at the center of controversy when Humans of New York (HONY) founder Brandon Stanton accused her of copying the format. His remarks came after HOB filed a copyright infringement suit in the Delhi High Court against another online storytelling platform, People of India (POI).

HOB fired back at Stanton in an open letter, calling his words “an insidious attack on our efforts to protect intellectual property.”

In a separate post, Mehta said the idea never deterred him from appreciating the company’s New York contacts. “…We have been inspired by HONY and will forever be grateful to them for showing us what storytelling can do for our community,” she said.

(Also read: ‘Our story’: HOB founder Karishma Mehta writes note on controversy with Indian nationals)