Faux it or Forget it

Faux it

or forget it

From Monroe to Moss, they've all done it. All the great style icons of our century have worn fur and, beyond a shadder of a doubt, looked fabulous doing it.

The eternal question, however, remains: in it O.K? A couple of days I go I watched Kill it, Skin it, Wear it, a documentary on Merrilees Parker's search for ethically "produced" fur. Parker visits numerous players in the fur industry to find out if she could wear a fur which had been made of animals that live and die under humane conditions.

It's needless to tell you that animals bred for their fur are treated horribly - anyone who has come across the names Peta or Naomi Campbell will know this. But our knowledge of such torturous conditions are abstract - they come from the media and the oh so repetitive public discussion on the trade (where parties usually just end up spitting abuse at each other). But most of us never touch close to experiencing these horrors first hand. And like with so many other things we are not confronted with directly, it's easy to dismiss the controversy around the fur industry when we need a fashion fix.

Back to Parker. Although she has seen the worst of the worst - foxes chewing their limbs off as a paniced reaction to being encaged, dehydrated and malnurished animals and minks being skinned alive, their skulls being crushed by the boots of evil breeders while they struggle to stay alive - she is determined in her search for an alternative way of yielding fur. And indeed, in North America she finds fur traders who do not breed animals, but capture them in the wild.

A local hunter who has been in the business some fifty years takes her on a journey into the wild, showing how - with a trap and a shotgun - one captures animals without causing them unnecessary suffering. Supposedly his traps don't break their limbs or cause other injuries. (It does however remain unsettled whether leaving an animal trapped for up to days is ethical. Beavers will slowly drown in freezing water, and the rest may try to gnaw themselves free from traps, often biting off their own limbs.) Parker is also dubious, but settles for feeling O.K. wearing the fur of an animal she was able to trap, kill and skin on her own. They have, after all, lived a long and happy life in the great outdoors.

I can relate to this pattern of thinking, because I basically live by the same philosophy as a vegetarian (well, pescetarian to be precise). I only eat things which I know I can kill and prepare myself. Fish being the only live animal belonging to this category it is also the only one I eat (I used to go fishing a lot with my dad). But how exactly do you learn the art of killing? Not just anyone can march into the woods and set traps, and even if you get a permit, you've got to have a pretty good idea of what you're up to. So unless you can find a master hunter to show you the art, you're pretty much going to have to rely on buying the fur.

So where do you buy this ethically made fur? You'd think there are retailers specialized on your needs, but think again. Most of the fur world wide lands at huge auction houses, from where it's shipped to buyers across the globe. The fur here is not, as you might hope, sorted by origin but rather by colour. This means all that blood drenched bad stuff and the few bits from wild animals are mixed. In the end you'll have no idea where your mink gilet came from. It could be made of animals from tens of different places. So the only place you'll get the real, ethical deal is directly from a hunter. Good luck!

This leaves the question why someone would bother buying fur in the first place. (O.K, you might just be a vain fashion junkie - simple as that. I hope your fuzzy shadow haunts you.) Like this season has proven us, there isn't a true need for the real thing when you can faux it in style. I just got myself a beautiful chocolate number, and it's so soft you might mistake it for the original. So instead of spending all this time, money and killing power on real furs, why don't we sit our delectable asses down for a minute and develop a faux thats even more luxurious than mine. It's got to be possible with all this nano technology and everything!

As far as promoting fur as a fashion accessory by wearing faux myself goes, I think it's silly. Furs look good, and if I can achieve the same style without killing a single animal, I don't see how I'd be supporting the industry. Almost every person on this planet knows that there is something fishy about the fur industry. You'd have to be quite a nitwit knot to. So before making the decision of buying a fur I think it's everybody's responsibility to do a bit of research and see if they still feel comfortable about it. I can not take the responsibility of making decisions for you.

And with all that said I leave you with some footage which reminds me of why I could never wear a real fur, even if it's vintage, without feeling like the scum of the universe. You'll probably have seen things like it before, but look at it anyway. And think - really think about it. I hope it shakes you.

For further reading see:

Parts of Kill it, Skin it, Wear it on youtube

Peta on lots of information about the fur industry

Animalia, the Finnish animal welfare society. (My mum worked there for years!)

Jane from Sea of Shoes wearing faux and looking fabulous! Look here & here!

JLoDown.com is dedicated to get Lopez off the fur trip! Smart and funny!

Dahlings, I'd love to hear how you feel about fur! Do you wear it? Do you think it looks good? Is there such a thing as ethical fur? Lets get talking!

xx and lots of love,

Jasmin