Controversy at London Fashion Week.

Londoners can hardly be called prudes, but a dress made from 3,000 protruding cow nipples—not yak, as People.co.uk erroneously reported—had Fashion Week attendees clutching at their pearls. Designed by Liverpool-born designer Rachel Freire, whose clientele includes celebrities like Christina Aguilera and Courtney Love, the floor-length gown has raised the ire of the British public, politicians, and animal-rights groups alike, who have branded it “inappropriate and disturbing,” “absolutely grotesque,” “sickening and repulsive,” and a “runaway freak show, according to the gossip website. ~ via ecouterre.com

Where do the materials come from?

According to Rachel Freire (via her facebook page),

…they are collected from the waste in a tannery which works to incredibly high standards to ensure it operates as ethically as possible…  All of the leather used is a byproduct of the meat industry and the nipples are a byproduct of that leather production. They are waste.

Now… would you wear it? I would.

It’s a statement for the earth. Although, as much as my wardrobe needs an overhaul, I’m not sure I could there’s no way I could pull it off.

More about the designer.

In 2003, Rachel Freire was offered a place studying fashion in Central Saint Martins. She turned it down to accept a place in the CSM School of Art to study Design for Performance. The fashion school didn’t understand why anyone would do this thing and refused to release her for three months, which kinda screwed her finances. In 2008 she decided that fashion might not be so awful as was this loanless rude experience, founded her label, and the rest is history.

Rachel Freire debut fashion collection was presented at London Fashion Week with On|Off in February 2009 at the Science Museum in London.
Already her work has been seen in publications such as Vogue, Dazed and Confused, AnOther, Zink, Issue One, Sublime, and art press such as Timeout London, Juxtapoz, Illustrated Ape, Art Business Today and Metro.