Florida state officials have been looking for a way to monetize their python problem, and New Yorker fashion designers have a solution. They know just what to do with gigantic, invasive pythons: Turn them into gigantic, invasive purses.
[Designer Camillle Zarsky] plans to order a sample of uncolored or “natural” Florida python for her line of bags, which are made exclusively of the material and range from $500 to $2,000. And she’s not sharing her hunter’s name, because she’s worried other designers will poach him. “I feel good about it knowing that pythons are a problem in Florida,” Zarsky told the Cut. “You’re not taking an animal out of its own habitat. It’s actually a solution to an environmental problem.”
We’ve written in the past about eating invasive species, and this is on the same spectrum. (Actually, in this case it’s better. Eating Florida-grown python meat is not a great idea — it’s got disturbingly high levels of mercury in it.) Conveniently, “python is having a fashion moment in general,” according to New York. If people like Beyoncé are going to be wearing snake-skin bodysuits anyway, those suits might as well be sourced from fierce snakes that are eating up other species.
