Wall Street Journal: The New Politics of Purses

Devi Kroell anaconda bag- From Aug 4th edition of Wall Street Journal

The New Politics of Purses
Python or anaconda? Popular styles fuel
a debate over which species not to skin
By VANESSA O'CONNELL
August 4, 2007; Page P3

Snakeskin is slinking into fashion this fall, showing up on everything from $5,000 Jimmy Choo handbags to $750 Michael Kors belts.

Python, which mostly hails from Southeast Asia and is known for variations in color and scale sizes and a supple feel, is the hottest skin of the season for many luxury-goods makers and designers. Others prefer anaconda, a native of the swamps of tropical South America, which has more regular-sized scales and a slightly plastic texture.

What most consumers don't realize is that no matter which bag or shoes they buy this fall -- anaconda or python -- they will be taking a position in a global debate over which species of snake is more at risk of being endangered.

In California, one of the world's most important luxury-goods markets, a decades-old state law bans the sale of products made from python. So when the snakeskin look began to take off with the high-end accessories boom a few years back, top designers like Salvatore Ferragamo and Bottega Veneta turned to the anaconda as a substitute for python.

Now, many designers, from Chloé to Michael Kors to Nancy Gonzalez, are producing more accessories with anaconda skins for the California market and nationally. But that presents another slippery problem: Anaconda is protected by Brazil, which doesn't currently allow commercial harvest and export of the snake.

The result is confusion among shoppers, designers and even animal-protection advocates over which skin is preferable. "If it's threatened, then I absolutely would not buy it," says Sheri Abelson, a 43-year-old resident of Beverly Hills, Calif., who was shopping at Saks Fifth Avenue. But Ms. Abelson, like many shoppers on Rodeo Drive recently, had never heard of the dueling restrictions.

Exactly which snake species is more at risk of extinction isn't clear, even to those who study them. It's inherently difficult to count how many snakes lurk in wild swamps, experts say. "For many species, we do not have enough data to know how they are doing and how harvesting would affect them," says Stephen C. Richter, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Eastern Kentucky University.

Neither of the species used in accessories is on any official endangered-species list. But the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species says both anaconda and python face extinction if trade isn't monitored closely. The organization forbids participating countries from allowing export unless they have determined that the skin trade wouldn't hurt the species' survival.

Brazil protects the anaconda -- which was farmed heavily in the mid-1980s for leather -- and hasn't licensed anyone to export the skins. But in California, anaconda can be sold freely. Python, however, can't. According to a 1971 law, the state bans the sale of python along with ocelot, polar bear, leopard and tiger. The law makes it a crime to import or sell python, but not to own it.

Critics of the California law say it makes no sense to ban python but allow anaconda. "There's a lot of contradiction out there," says Mark Mendal, president of Pan American Leathers, a leather tannery. "Anaconda is strongly regulated, just like the python is, too, according to the terms of international treaty."

Tina Craig, who runs the luxury handbag review site Bagsnob.com, says the dueling protections make it very difficult for consumers to buy responsibly. Shoppers, she says, "can't win by choosing either or -- but isn't that always the case when animal skins are used for our pleasure?" To further complicate matters, some reptile experts claim that the trade of skins may actually help encourage the growth of a particular species.

The popularity of snakeskin this season grew out of the exotic-skin trend that in recent years has made alligator and crocodile accessories must-haves for the high-fashion crowd. Snakeskins cost far less, which is why retailers and designers are pitching them now as more-affordable luxuries appealing to a larger audience. Snakeskin bags and shoes can be roughly half the price of products in alligator and crocodile.

Designers historically have preferred python. Gucci and Dior are pushing python accessories this fall. An oversized python bag by Prada became a fashion sensation -- and sold out of stores -- this summer after "Desperate Housewives" actress Eva Longoria was photographed sporting it around the world.

Anaconda, on the other hand, "is a much poorer skin," says New York accessories designer Devi Kroell. Still, anaconda has seen a surge in popularity recently as designers use it to get around the California python ban. This fall, Lambertson Truex will sell a variety of anaconda belts and bags. Designer Kara Ross says high-end department store Neiman Marcus suggested she make some handbags only in anaconda, so they could be sold in California as well as other states.

Anaconda imports into the U.S. have risen sharply. Last year, about 8,900 skins and products were imported to the U.S., up from 5,200 in 2000, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

As demand has risen, so have prices, which roughly doubled in the past five years to $24 per meter for Argentine anaconda, says Mr. Mendal of Pan American Leathers. This is keeping pace with the strong increase in prices for python skin, which costs about the same.

---- Nicholas Casey and Antonio Regalado contributed to this article.