Fur is trendy again

Last week it was announced that Karl Lagerfeld is going to take on another couture collection in addition to the couture show for Chanel the couture show for Chanel for Fendi. The collection will be shown in Paris on July 8 and is named “Haute Fourrure,” which means fur with a bit more fur and finally some fur on a bed of fur. In short, a lot of dead animals. I don't know, but last time I checked, fur was quite not done. What happened?

In the 90s, the anti-fur lobby was huge. Do you remember all those PETA campaigns with supermodels posing naked with the text ’I’d rather go naked than wear fur“? At fashion shows and other high-profile events, fur wearers were regularly doused with red paint, and the consensus was quite clear: wearing fur is not okay. But that image seems to have faded away.

But what I have always found strange is that so many fur wearers themselves walk in leather shoes, have a leather bag, and use makeup from brands that still test on animals.

Figures from a study conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers show that last year the global fur industry was good for $40 billion (!), which is as much as the entire wifi industry. The year before, in 2013, fur sales in the US alone increased by 10% compared to sales in 2012. And the designers who work with fur are multiplying rapidly; in 2000 there were only 40, now there are over 500.

So, an upward trend in fur sales and fur use, and that while we are regularly flooded with horrific videos showing animals barbarically stripped of their fur. But that upward trend seems to continue for a while. Fur can now be offered cheaper and is thus also accessible to young people and less fortunate individuals, causing furs to appear more and more in the streets and stay there.

“Fur is Fendi, and Fendi is fur.”

So Fendi is adding another layer to this. By the way, it’s not very unexpected; Fendi has always had an intimate relationship with fur. In 2013, Karl Lagerfeld even said: “Fur is Fendi, and Fendi is fur.” Fendi has a fur workshop where more than 40 people work full-time, who together have about 600 years of experience working with fur. “People like to invest in a fur coat from Fendi because they know it is made by the best hands in the world,” says Fendi CEO Pietro Beccari.

Fendi is not the only brand with a love for fur. Among others, Gucci, Michael Kors, Giorgio Armani, Marni, Roberto Cavalli, and Burberry all showcased pieces with fur in their latest collection. And we saw it a lot on the streets; in New York, about 1 in 5 women wore a fur coat – fake or real. And one of those women was me. A faux fur, but still.

Now I am personally a huge animal lover and in that capacity against any form of animal abuse. But what I have always found strange is that so many fur wearers themselves walk in leather shoes, have a leather bag, and use makeup from brands that still test on animals. Isn't that a very strange double standard? Why is one allowed and the other not? Moreover, fur is not the only problematic material, at the site of De Dierenbescherming states that there are also many problems with wool. 80% of the wool sold in the Netherlands comes from Australia and is “obtained in a very animal-unfriendly manner. Lambs must undergo a number of very painful procedures shortly after birth, causing the mortality rate among lambs to be around 20% to 40% before they are 8 weeks old.” But you rarely hear anyone about that.

“now just hope they come to skin you alive for your skin. You deserve it.”

Thanks to PETA, it is widely known that fur is often (but not always) obtained in an animal-unfriendly manner. Not always, I say, because it is really no longer the case that fur is obtained through torture practices by definition. There are numerous organizations and institutions that ensure that fur is obtained within the limits of what is acceptable. And by the way, don’t think that the cows and pigs that are on the shelves of Albert Heijn have had such a sunny life. Anti-fur people are always so terribly fierce that there is no sensible word to exchange with them. May-Britt wrote this post last week this post about fur, in which she doesn’t even take a real stance, and immediately she was told on Twitter “now just hope they come to skin you alive for your skin. You deserve it.” I really wonder if that Twitter user is also a vegetarian and never wears leather shoes.

It is very much in vogue to be against fur and thus against animal suffering, but actually executing that conviction is sometimes harder than desired. That Fendi is going to release a fur collection goes too far for me personally, and fewer dead animals is always a good idea, but I find it a shame that a critical discussion about this topic is completely impossible without death threats being issued and people starting to scream white-hot. The problem lies with animal suffering, and fur is just one expression of that. Big brands that sell their fur pieces for a lot of money will more often than anti-fur people want to admit that they obtain their fur in an acceptable manner. What is a problem, however, is that because the expensive brands openly embrace it so much, cheaper brands will start to copy it – and those often work with worse and thus more animal-unfriendly fur. Look, and that is of course not the intention.