I’m not sure if it is because of Eating Animals, or some other reason, but I’ve noticed a lot of messages on our social media channels along the lines of “How can Natalie talk about how we should treat animals when Dior tests its products on them.”

I don’t have an answer to that but I thought it would be a good idea to summarize the situation. So…

Does Dior test on animals?

It wouldn’t be the first time that advocacy groups would be wrong (see: GMOs) but as far as I can tell, the answer to the question is “yes”, with an important caveat – Dior doesn’t test or work with companies that test unless required to do so by law. China requires testing by law. Dior sells in China. So, for that market, their products are tested.

What does this say about Dior?

It means they’re another company that, like Apple, that even though they do a lot of good they are also willing to compromise in order to access a massive market.

Did Natalie know about this before she signed on?

I might be wrong, but I think this only came into effect after Natalie joined.

Does Natalie not care?

Quite the contrary. Longtime visitors might recall that I used to have a contact close to Natalie. At the time I was told that Natalie’s team spent months vetting Dior before she signed. Treatment of animals was fundamental to her signing on. My source told me that even the well-being of bees was looked at.

So why is she still with Dior?

This I do not know, but here are some best guess scenarios. You can choose whatever you think is more likely.

1 – She is trapped in her contract. If we look closely at the Miss Dior advertising we can see secret messages indicating her disillusionment.

2 – She doesn’t know. Nobody wants to tell her and have a really awkward conversation.

3 – She found out but is now so comfortable with the Miss Dior lifestyle that she’s willing to look the other way.

4 – Being inside Dior she can see how much good they do in other areas, including pushing for and working on alternative testing practices for the industry to use. Essentially, the good far outweighs the bad and internally they may believe that they are fighting for a change that is just around the corner.

Hopefully, a journalist will ask Natalie directly and we won’t have to guess. Giving her involvement with Eating Animals it feels like a question that is reasonable to ask.