Eager holiday shoppers who shuffled their way around a tightly packed Bloomingdale’s on Thursday, were treated to the personal appearance of: socialite, philanthropist, actress, author and designer (amongst other things), Cornelia Guest. Her early evening drop-in was a chance for delighted fans—many of whom Ms. Guest appeared to know personally—to talk with the all-round do-gooder. The topic for the evening? Vegan handbags.
“Actually, I prefer to call them Cruelty-Free bags,” Ms. Guest said. “They are an alternative…I also wanted them to be affordable, so none of them are over $300.”
Ms. Guest is an avid vegetarian and animal rights campaigner. Since she ”stopped eating meat around seven or eight years ago”, she decided to give away her mother’s furs to charity. More than this, she posed for PETA’s “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign earlier in the year.
Philanthropist’s have a habit of coming into their own over Christmas, so what would Ms. Guest be doing, we wondered? “I’ve asked anyone who was going to give me a present, to donate a fur coat to the homeless instead.” Then Larry Wohl dropped in with Lessa Rowland, as a sign of support for the the host and her bags.
“I think it’s great. I’m a pescetarian and I don’t eat chicken,” he said.
The trunk sale was at fever pitch, and the bags were selling quickly. As we dodged our way through the oncoming crowds, and into the bitter New York night, we were left with the question on everybody’s lips: would we rather go naked than wear fur? We opted for neither.
