Of Course Oscar De La Renta Isn't Selling Elephant Skin Shoes

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A copyediting error may have led PETA to incorrectly sic its members on Oscar de la Renta and Gilt over a pair of shoes supposedly made out of 100% elephant skin. The shoes weren't made out of elephant skin and never were, according to Oscar de la Renta. The brand released a statement to WWD, which explains the situation from their end:

This afternoon, PETA posted on its Web site a claim that Oscar de la Renta used elephant skin in our accessories products. In fact, this is not true, as Gilt Groupe has acknowledged that this resulted from them incorrectly labeling one of our products as being made from 100 percent elephant skin. They have acknowledged the mistake and have moved to correct it across their site.

The error may have come about over the use of the word "elaphe" to describe the shoes, WWD suggests. What is an elaphe? It's a snake that preys on rodents, and it's decidedly not an elephant. Then again, PETA wouldn't have approved of the use of snakeskin for shoes either.

PETA appears to have taken its action alert titled "Urge Retailers to Stop the Sale of Elephant-Skin Shoes" down, but you can see a cached version of it here.

Photo via Gilt