Vogue Magazine turned heads recently with its article talking about faux fur, dethroning the polyester textile from its moral pedestal in the eyes of anti-fur consumers.
Talking about the provocative Schiaparelli exhibition during Paris Haute Couture Week, which featured faux fur life-size animal heads, author Blythe Marks notes PETA’s positive reaction:
PETA’s praise of the collection as “fabulously innovative” feels like an about-face from its iconic “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaign…PETA could have urged the public to buy secondhand fur because it’s a more sustainable option than using raw materials to create new textiles, of which more than 11 billion tons went to landfills in the United States in 2018 alone.
Indeed, PETA gushed over Kylie Jenner’s wearing a faux fur lion head, saying:
“Kylie’s look celebrates lions’ beauty and may be a statement against trophy hunting, in which lion families are torn apart to satisfy human egotism…These fabulously innovative three-dimensional animal heads show that where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, to TMZ
However, as Marks notes, faux fur is no green alternative. If anything, it can be condemned for its negative impact on the planet, as well as its being counterproductive when compared to recycling or upcycling. It’s polyester. It’s plastic.
Makers of plastic fur alternatives—made mostly from polyester, a nonbiodegradable fiber expected to reach $174.7 billion in sales by 2032—can now retool their messaging to scoop up sympathy from the madding crowd…Thankfully, truly cherishing what already exists in circulation, including real vintage fur that will biodegrade, is a practical, thoughtful, and viable personal solution we can all take advantage of.
I began incorporating fur into my wardrobe a few months ago. I initially felt apprehensive about admitting that I was doing so — from ardently supporting PETA as a vegetarian teenager to ex-Hasidic progressive adult, fur and my persona have never really gone together (other than when I was in the Hasidic world). Very few of my friends are fur-wearing people. So I was expecting a lot of backlash for even considering purchasing a pelt.
Initially I felt guilty for purchasing fur — I envisioned myself contributing to some horrible mega-industry plundering habitats with abandon. While such corporations do exist, they are definitely not the totality of fur sellers. My initial fur purchases have almost all been from Native Americans whose nations have been fur trapping for millennia, or from fur trappers living off the land in remote locations. Buying fur has, however, opened my eyes to the variety of fur sellers on the market: I’ve seen everything from “I shot this coyote because it was eating my chickens” to “I got this off a truck and asked no questions”. From the most to the least ethical, every type of fur and pelt exists. A few clicks can show the difference to the concerned consumer.
I no longer feel guilty about wearing fur – any fur I’m buried with will decompose along with me, and is as biodegradable as I am. Any animal I’m wearing was almost certainly put to additional good uses besides its fur. So far, I have four foxes and a coyote. And I don’t see myself slowing down any time soon.
As long as there are Native or homesteader trappers out there looking to feed their families, I’ll be there to help them, and to look good while doing it.
