I was disgusted by the girl in the coast who said that she will only wear vintage fur, because it’s not new. This makes no sense. It’s still an animal killed, and you could care less either way. Just admit that instead of riding the fence trying to please everyone.
PS- Your style sucks. No one wants to look like you.
—your mother.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2009.
i agree with this, even fake fur promotes the “fur look” as fashionable and therefore fuels a demand for real animal fur by people who can afford the real thing.
I love eating and wearing dead animals.
Bro Tim…I like eating them while their still wriggling. For those thinking of buying Fur…look to see if you can help our Seal Harvesters out…start demanding seal skin products anything from boots to hats & those cute little seal skin souviners that were available for the tourist trade .
Possibly because no new animals need to be killed to make another coat? Recycling, hello?
PS: fur is awesome, warm, biodegrades and people take better care of it than the fake shit. YAY fur!
I’ll only wear the fur of the finest polyesters.
I’m all for treating and eating animals ethically, but the concept of fur farming seems to be a little wasteful. Now, if fox and mink were good eats, I’d be on board. Unfortunately, the animals with the cutest coats have the least tasty meat. Cows are a good compromise. I like eating steaks in my leather jacket.
The carcasses are generally ground up for petanimal feed, and the organic waste(read:shit) is a hot commodity for organic farm fertilizer.
Fuck, am I going to have to wear a giant Jolly Tar head when I sport my polyester wonderfur to avoid comments about how my coat is a reminder of the world’s dead yaks?
Well, as long as everything gets used and if the animals are treated well, it’s not a problem for me I guess. I’m not a big fan of the look of fur though. Looks a little 80’s and pretentious.
And to think I thought fur had the 1,000,000 BC look. Oh well Raquel Welch looked great.
Let me clarify: Fur loincloths = 1,000,000 B.C. look. Fur coats = Wrinkly old rich ladies from the 80’s.
The only animal I have no problem wearing is alligator. Hate those fuckers. However, I think wearing any animal is just plain hideous.
Wearing fur is a cultural necessity to the Inuit people of Canada. Before white man moved up north, some sixty years ago, the Inuit were still a nomadic people who depended on the seal, Nar whale, walrus and polar bear for furs to keep warm, food, blubber to eat, burn for light, and warmth. The Inuit did not waste much. You see Linda McCartney and other bleeding hearts there are no trees in the arctic. Everything needed to come from the animals.
There are many cultures that need to kill animals to sustain them self’s. Our culture included. Without cattle farming, or fishing, we would all likely have a poor economy and starve to death. Man cannot live on bread alone. The commercial sealing industry is a necessary hunt. Culling seals also serves to protect our fish population from over fishing by the seal. In order to exist in the world we have to consume from it. There is nothing evil about being part of the food chain. It is what nature intended for us. We are omnivores and are meant to eat everything. We are also meant to use our brains to fashion tools to aid us. The invention of the fur coat (the original coat), has allowed man to move into the more extreme climates.
That being said, Poached fur and animal products is another matter. Shark fining, ivory poaching, illegal whaling and sealing, these poaching activities are far more inhumane then legitimate hunting and fur trapping.
Wearing new or old fur is fine; just know where it comes from. Chances are if it is made in Canada, it is not poached and was taken from an animal that was also eaten. The real horror is when fur is poached and the animal wasted and left for dead. I think the fur protesters should turn their energy into anti poaching campaigns. They would be taken more seriously and make a much greater impact.
Hey Rafiki – exactamundo! I despise it when people take cultural traditions and bastardize them to create fashion trends. Shame.
Rafiki– uh, hate to tell ya, but the white guy went up there well before 60 years ago. Now, that said, I am for fur, but only in the sense where the animal has other uses (i.e.: cattle). Your argument of being on top of the food chain is a joke at best. Of course we’re going to be on top of the food chain, as long as we have weapons. Put us in a cage with another “food” animal, and we quickly become the prey. The other part of the argument of being on top of the food chain is that it makes us have a right to kill and eat other animals. That’s put some species at the edge of extinction, all at the price of our right to kill and eat them/wear their fur. You’re right, without agriculture, most economies would fail, and would not be able to sustain it’s population. But there’s a limit to what we can do as a society. Also, for years, there have been much better synthetic products that have been available, that provide more warmth, and last longer.
Hey Dr. Fever, Rafiki said we’re a part of the food chain not the top.
By better synthetic products do you mean polyesters? As in manufactured, processed hydrocarbons? What has the lesser impact? The plastic clothes that were created by science that will never biodegrade? Or the natural clothes that were, and will be again, just dust?
As for that ‘food chain’ discussion, ‘put yourself in a cage with an animal’ do you have any idea how stupid you sound? Who built the cage? Who moved the animal into the cage? Mother fucking nature? Humans are animals, we are (currently) winning the evolution race, and we dominate the food chain. Assuming the ‘cage’ is hypothetical, your argument makes even less rational sense. Humans have adapted to ensure we eat food, not are food. I dont know about you, but I am not in pen being raised for food by some other ‘food animal’
Bottom line here is waste not, want not. Fur is a high quality, natural material. The real problem is harvesting animals for a single purpose.
I think that vintage fur has a place because what would you rather us do, wear clothes that still exist, even with fur on them, or burn them all to make a point, which is more harmful to the planet? If I can’t wear any of my vintage coats, I’d have to go buy new coats. Let’s add insult to injury by killing an animal for it’s coat, then burning the coat instead of wearing it.
Although, I agree that full fur coats are too 80’s, I only wear vintage coats with fur trim.
(Nice to see you back Miles!)
I’m in internal conflict with this topic. I am not a fur wearer, and due to the influence of my fur-hatin’ momma, I grew up despising fur. However, there are some comments on here that deserve recognition i.e. fur being a natural (biodegradable) product, versus wearing the ‘top of the line’ polyesters, made from synthetic and earth-harmin’ products. At the same time, I HATE HATE the thought of animals being killed so I can sport their carcusses….sigh, will my mind never be at peace?
KB, don’t beat yourself up over it. If you don’t want to wear fur, don’t bother. And don’t feel bad about polyester either, it can be recycled. MEC has a clothing recycling program in place. Also, if you want to stay natural and not kill animals, Wool and Cotton still make good clothes.
If it were not for fur our species would have become extinct long ago. I think it is a natural alternative to Chinese made synthetics the creation of which produces longstanding toxic waste. I agree the process is rather inhumane but that is our nature. Perhaps we should start wearing human pelts? Seems our population has exceeded it’s limits…
Actually, non-organic cotton is probably the worst thing you can wear; cotton uses approximately 25% of the world’s insecticides and more than 10% of the pesticides, and the Environmental Protection Agency considers seven of the top 15 pesticides used on cotton in 2000 in the United States as “possible,” “likely,” “probable,” or “known” human carcinogens (acephate, dichloropropene, diuron, fluometuron, pendimethalin, tribufos, and trifluralin). More good stuff at http://www.ota.com/organic/environment/cot….
I’m a fashion junkie and I find this incredibly scary stuff. So much focus is put on packaged crap–do we really need 200 kinds of organic cereal bars?–and yet people will put anything on their bodies. But I was at a fashion show on the weekend, and there are local designers and NSCAD students who are creating cool clothing out of recycled or sustainable materials. And hey, there’s always Sally Ann… I don’t think we need to go back to caveguy days to dress without hurting animals or ourselves.
Damn can’t live in this time because we’re polluting and killing animals and can’t live in the old organic age (1,000,000 BC) because we’re polluting (fires, discarding remains) and killing animals. Oh what shall I do?
Actually, the furs and leathers produced within the past 100 years or so have been tanned and cleaned with many chemicals. You should visit a Tannery and see how much formaldehyde is used in the production of leather. Not to mentions of the dyes used. Furs are cleaned and made brighter with chemicals not unlike the ones used in dry cleaning. Fur nowadays is FAR from leather. Please note that I’m not against the wearing of fur, I’m just saying there are many alternatives.
Sorry, that’s far from natural.
Just a question Ive been wondering about for a while…
Are the animals used for their hides/pelts used all of the time? I know one poster mentioned they were used in dog food (more or less), but what about the cows they use for leather? Does that ever, actually, go to human consumption? I imagine it would be a timely and costly practice – as opposed to having one function per animal – but itd make sense.
Like wise with the sheep brains and cow eyes they send for disection in science classes, were those animals “grown” for the sole purpose of donating their organs. Or were the organs donated as a byproduct of the original purpose of the animal.
My slow dial up connection doesnt want me to research it. Answers, anyone?
As far as I know, animals that are farmed for fur by reputable farmers probably get used for more than just fur. Trappers mostly just take the pelt.
With respect to leather, it’s usually dairy cows that then get slaughtered for meat and the hides sold for leather.
Pieces of animals in science class are usually from the slaughterhouse.
Animals used in actual science experiments are born and housed in animal care facilities at the research institute.