party lines

Alice + Olivia Designer Stacey Bendet Doesn’t Eat Animals, But Feels Glamorous Wearing Them

Alice + Olivia designer Stacey Bendet, who launched M.A.C.’s alice+olivia collection at Beauty Bar last night, arrived in a head-turning red number topped with a Mongolian Lamb vest, one of her own pieces. She looked pretty awesome, but the designer admitted to us that she has somewhat mixed feelings about the fur pieces she makes. “I’m vegan, actually,” she said. “I don’t eat [animals], I don’t put meat in my body. So every once in a while I think it’s okay to wear it. But I made it — I’m probably going to hell.”

She continued: “I don’t feel that guilty wearing it. I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense. But something about putting it inside me feels really barbaric. Something about wearing it just feels a little glamorous.” Lucy Sykes, who stopped by with her husband, Euan Rellie, to congratulate Bendet, noted that Kelly Bensimon, also in attendance last night, espoused a similar philosophy on fur during a Real Housewives episode. So would Bendet be on reality TV, like fur-wearing Bensimon or fellow designer Rachel Zoe? “No,” she said, without hesitation. “I really like to be alone. And I also really like designing clothes. Being a celebrity is a job. Those people want to be out there all the time. I’d rather stay in my room and make collages. I’m a designer, I’m not a celebrity.”

Alice + Olivia Designer Stacey Bendet Doesn’t Eat Animals, But Feels Glamorous Wearing Them