Fur is making a big comeback
Attitudes appear to be changing about wearing skin
At an awards ceremony a few months ago, British actor Billie Piper turned heads in a lavish fur jacket. “Was she, or wasn’t she?” a watching public demanded. “Real or faux?”
And, yet, the argument seemed less red in tooth and claw than it would have been 10 years ago, when it was a prerequisite for supermodels to declare they would rather go naked than sport pelts.
To be sure, a vociferous minority continues to be alarmed regarding standards. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has a Christmas campaign on the horrors of Chinese angora, for which rabbits appear to be grotesquely stretched, have their hair yanked out while alive, left for their hair to regrow and then have it plucked again.
And yet in the mainstream, where skin once provoked shudders, now most merely shrug.
Winter 2013 runways were plush with pelt. More than 400 designers are using fur across London, Paris, New York and Milan fashion weeks. American designer Joseph Altuzarra memorably sent a model down his catwalk in a black-andwhite intarsia fox, prompting Elle’s Anne Slowey to tweet “Cruella de Vil eat your heart out.” Moreover, new techniques mean skin is increasingly being used in spring/summer collections in addition to the traditional winter months.
Where once fur was confined to a few picketed outlets, now it can be found from haute to high street, from a $159,000 Prada coat to a $120 Zara “lapin.” Fur is no longeracontroversialanachronism, but a flourishing global enterprise. “This is almost the golden age in fur,” Charles Ross of Saga Furs has said.
The world trade is now worth $16.45 billion, with pelts reaching record prices at auction. And the demand is not just coming from Asia, where sales have tripled in less than a decade. Last month, a survey of 6,000 adults across six European countries found that 39 per cent of consumers said they liked seeing fur in fashion and furnishings — more than double the number in 2010. Also, 35 per cent had at least one fur item at home and 36 per cent said they either wear fur or would like to.
Of course, the more fashionfixated contingent never renounced skin: Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, Jennifer Lopez, Kate Moss and, of course, the routinely PETA-denounced Vogue editor Anna Wintour.
However, there are signs that a new generation of highprofile women are also succumbing to fur’s charms, be it the Olsen twins or the Middleton sisters.
There are many reasons. The ability for fake fur may have made people less reticent about donning the real McCoy. And many people simply like it. One fashionista confides: “I wear fur because it’s nice. The whole phobia about it feels really dated. We all wear leather so — as long as the mink, etc. are treated in accordance with other farming standards — who cares? I’m concerned about human rights.”
Some people associate fur with freedom. Last year, Lady Gaga defended her right to don animal. And in a criticism of the aggressive approach of organizations such as PETA, she added: “I do not … support violent, abusive and childish campaigns for any cause. Particularly one that I respect: animal rights.”
Obviously, people who choose to wear fur should consider animal welfare regulations. The industry uses a labelling system that allows consumers to identify that farmed and wild fur originated in a country where welfare standards governing production are enforced.