‘Guts me to use leather I purchased’: Humans of Bombay CEO Karishma Mehta to sell Prada, Louis Vuitton, YSL, Gucci bags and shoes

Humans of Bombay (HoB) founder and CEO Karishma Mehta on Wednesday announced that she will sell her luxury bags and shoes soon. Mehta said that while growing up, women are conditioned to look at magazines featuring beautiful images of the ideal woman. 

The entrepreneur also shared pictures of her Prada, Louis Vuitton, YSL, Gucci and Fendi bags and shoes on Instagram. “As we grow older, we start circling our “dream bag” and “dream shoes” and dream of the walk in the closet like in Princess Diaries,” she said in her post. 

She wrote that she decided to sell her luxury leather goods since she is embracing animal cruelty-free fashion in 2025.

“As a vegetarian, I won’t eat meat because it doesn’t sit right with me to consume a living being. How then can it sit well with me to partake in a market that prides itself on being “luxury” by levying their premium-ness on the quality of animal being skinned? It doesn’t.”

She added that she has decided to avoid purchasing leather of any kind. “As I have arrived at the decision to not only stop the purchase of leather of any kind, it guts to me use the leather that I may have already purchased.”

Mehta also said that the proceeds of the sales will go towards NGOs working for animal welfare.

“I hope this little action opens your eyes to it- dream still, think of conquering your biggest dream still- relentlessly, equivocally. But do it with heart, do it with kindness. Here’s to a kinder 2025 & being leather free for life (sic),” she said towards the end of the post. 

Mehta’s announcement to go leather free in 2025 won plaudits from netizens. “Amazing ! I’m so glad you’re doing this (sic),” a user wrote. “Very well said and so true we skinned animals for this luxury bags,” a second user said. 

“Very few people actually realise this and even fewer convert it into action. Animals are unfortunately exploited not only in the food system which includes meat, dairy and seafood but also in the fashion and makeup (animal testing and using animal ingredients). Lovely to see you take this step. Hope it inspires all of us to be a little more mindful of what we consume, not only as food but everything that’s a part of our lifestyle (sic),” a third user wrote.