Daily Mail 11/30/06: Fur is back...and the fashion industry should hang its head in shame

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Fur is back...and the fashion industry should hang its head in shame

by LIZ JONESLast updated at 16:12pm on 30th November 2006

 

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Lily Cole models a Julien Macdonald fur-trimmed outfit

 

FEMAIL HOMEPAGE

 

There is a moment when you realise that fashion

has, this time, gone too far. Mine came last week

when I was standing in the Joseph shop in Fulham

trying to find something to wear to a Christmas

party.

 

I overheard two young women, probably in their

late 20s, talking while they caressed a black

poncho made entirely of rabbit fur and costing

over £300.

 

Read more...

* Heather Mills urges ban on pet fur

 

'I have to have it,' one of them said. 'I could

wear my H & M slippy dress underneath - but this

would add a bit of class.'

 

And then a day later, in the Prada store on Old

Bond Street, where almost every garment was

bedecked with fur - on pockets, on sweaters, on

skirts, on belts, on helmets - I rummaged around

for something to wear that hadn't been strangled,

or drowned in a bucket of water, or hung by its

hind legs and skinned alive, or electrocuted

anally. When I asked the shop assistant to help

me find a coat without fur, she shrugged her bony

shoulders and went off to help someone else, who

I noticed was wearing a black fur-trimmed jacket.

 

There was a time when women would hardly have

dared venture out on the streets of Britain

wearing fur without fear of being splattered with

paint, or sworn at. But this winter, it seems,

that is no longer the case: fur has become

acceptable, desirable, normal.

 

Women - even sane, decent ones - are buckling under the pressure to wear fur.

 

Not long ago, I sat at the Chanel catwalk show

next to my 30-year-old fashion editor friend, who

is a vegetarian, and she was saying: 'I have fur

envy. I have to have it - just a little bit.'

 

Jane Bruton, the editor of Grazia magazine, told

me that the other day a young member of her staff

had turned up to work in a fur coat, and when

berated for doing so, wailed: 'But it's vintage.'

(Vintage is, when it comes to ethics, no defence.

Although the animal has long been dead, wearing

the coat still gives off the message that fur is

beautiful, and acceptable.)

 

When Jane asked her if she would wear something

with a brand new fur trim, she replied that she

would - that she 'wouldn't even think about it'.

Sixteen years on from the first 'I Would Rather

Go Naked Than Wear Fur' billboards, how on earth

did British women become so, well, cruel?

 

Let us first of all 'out' all the female

celebrities who have been spotted wearing fur

recently. Sophie Dahl: mink and white fox.

(Perhaps she is cold from having lost so much

weight.) Keira Knightley: astrakhan - a

particularly nasty form of fur, coming as it does

from a lamb foetus, cut prematurely from its

mother's womb, before its tight black curls have

unfurled.

 

Kate Moss: monkey fur, and rabbit fur on Mukluk

boots, which I also spotted on the feet of

Topshop boss Philip Green's teenage daughter

Chloe. Nicole Richie, Jade Jagger, Eva Longoria,

Jennifer Lopez. I recently spotted Lucy Ferry in

a fur coat, seemingly oblivious to the

contradiction that she was also accompanied by a

much-loved rescued greyhound.

 

The list, unfortunately, goes on and on. Who do I

spy modelling a fur coat by Giorgio Armani Prive

in the new issue of U.S. Harper's Bazaar? None

other than Victoria Beckham. And while VB would

never have dreamed of wearing fur during her girl

band days for fear of alienating her fans, it

seems pop stars harbour no such qualms nowadays.

 

Beyonce recently refused to watch a video - sent

to her by the organisation People for the Ethical

Treatment of Animals (Peta) - which shows the

ill-treatment of animals on fur farms, and she

even extols the virtues of her chinchilla coat in

her songs.

 

'Animals exist for their own reasons'

 

Perhaps Beyonce should remember the words of the

powerful black author Alice Walker: 'The animals

of the world exist for their own reasons. They

were not made for humans, any more than black

people were made for whites or women for men.'

 

And while you might think the only women who wear

fur are misguided celebrities and fashionistas

with more money than ethics, recent figures

suggest the acceptability of fur goes deeper.

Sales of fur clothing in Britain have hit £500

million for the first time - up 30 per cent on

two years ago.

 

And while Tony Blair might have banned fur farms

in Britain in 2003, £40 million of fur products

are imported to this country every year.

 

I would like to list the names of the designers

who habitually use fur, but that would take up

far too many trees, so I merely name-check here

the ones I consider to be the worst culprits.

Stand up Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Jean-Paul

Gaultier and Chanel.

 

Stand up, too, Welsh-born designer Julien

Macdonald, whose collection for this winter was

obscene in its use of fox and chinchilla.

Macdonald, when challenged after the blood fest

that was his show during London Fashion Week,

would say only: 'I adore fur; it adds ultimate

luxury and glamour to my collections.'

 

When I rang for a comment this week, he was

unavailable. In the past he has stated simply:

'F**k animals'.

 

As Sadie Frost, the vegetarian half of design duo

Frost French and the most recent star to take off

her clothes in support of Peta's I Would Rather

Go Naked campaign, said recently: 'As a designer,

I've become aware of how fur is often pushed on

you to get financial breaks along the way.

 

'I know that a lot of designers who were having

problems financially have cleared their debts by

using fur. Though we've certainly had problems, I

would have really failed if I'd done that. I've

noticed fur coming back in the past five years,

and it has been getting more and more outrageous.

I have never understood its appeal. It makes me

think of blood, guts, cages.'

 

Another bete noire in my book is Burberry, whose

collection for this winter has fur in places you

never before realised you needed it, such as on

the hem of a trench coat, or on the cuffs or on

the neck of a sweater. The label's designer,

Christopher Bailey, has repeatedly refused to

listen to Peta's arguments against the use of fur.

 

When I interviewed the three young women who, in

protest, stormed the Burberry catwalk in Milan

back in September, they told me they had been

terrified moments before they unfurled their

anti-fur banners (as well they might have been,

given the manhandling they received from the

security guards), but that the memory of Peta's

video of a fox being skinned alive spurred them

on.

 

I have seen it, too, and it is heartbreaking: you

can see the fox blinking and looking around in

shock after it has been reduced to a bloody pulp.

 

Let's look at the grisly facts of fur. Although

every time I write an anti-fur piece I receive an

admonishing letter from the British Fur Trade

Association, it should be remembered that fox and

mink and rabbit are, by nature, wild, shy

creatures that become incredibly stressed in

cages. Another horrible fact: more than two

million cats and dogs are killed for their fur in

China every year. Some still have their collars

on when they are slaughtered - meaning they were

once much-loved pets.

 

In China, many of the animals are still alive

when the workers hang them up by their hind legs

to skin them. Cats are strangled within their

cages while other cats look on, and dogs

asphyxiated with metal wires. With no animal

welfare considerations, the pelts produced are so

cheap that China is now the biggest exporter of

fur in the world.

 

Recent talk of an EU ban on dog and cat fur is a

positive step, but it is impossible to DNA test

every fur item that comes into Europe, and these

fur products are not labelled as real fur at all.

 

And if you think that buying an expensive,

designer piece of fur will somehow ensure the

animals were treated with a modicum of decency,

you are very much mistaken. Burberry, the

aforementioned quintessentially 'British' company

(which plans, incidentally, to close its Welsh

factory and move production to China in the very

near future), only stopped using fur from China a

few seasons ago.

 

And what about seals? In 2005, more than 300,000

harp seals were killed during Canada's commercial

seal hunt, which begins in late March and lasts

until mid-May. These animals, too, are often

skinned while conscious. All of this bloodshed

for a supposedly 'luxury' item.

 

But there is some good news. A handful of

designers, including Vivienne Westwood, Todd

Oldham and Katharine Hamnett, will not use fur.

Ralph Lauren announced a worldwide ban earlier

this year, and Paul Smith has no fur in his

current collection, nor any plans to use it.

 

And two of the worst culprits, Miuccia Prada and

Roberto Cavalli, have agreed to look more closely

at the ethics of fur and to reduce its use. But

will they actually deliver cruelty-free clothes?

I doubt it.

 

When I interviewed John Galliano a few years ago

and told him how shocked I had been at the amount

of fur - heads, tails, whole birds used as hats -

at his Dior show in the Orangerie at Versailles,

he had nodded his head in agreement and said he

was beginning to change his mind.

 

Stella McCartney, who refuses to use even leather

in her collections, had sent him the Peta video.

He said: 'I watched it, and I was shocked, and it

made me think.' But lo and behold, this winter

Dior is awash with dead animals.

 

There is also Kate Moss modelling black fur in

the new Dior campaign carried by almost every

glossy. Which brings me neatly to my next point.

 

While most British magazines have a policy of not

using fur on the editorial pages, they do carry

ads for designers who use fur. But flicking

through the September issue of Vogue, I came

across a six-page 'advertorial' entitled Fur for

Fashionistas, with a Burberry wool and fox

trench, a chinchilla coat by Julien Macdonald, a

Roberto Cavalli mink and lynx coat, and fox coats

by Prada and Marc Jacobs.

 

And while Grazia editor Jane Bruton wouldn't wear

fur or feature it in her magazine, she

understands that women find it 'intoxicating,

seductive. It feels lovely, and it appeals to

your primal side.' Is this the reason British

women have suddenly fallen head-over-heels in

love with it? I think, perversely, that the rise

of the British High Street is partly to blame.

 

Having spoken to numerous buyers for boutiques in

London and further afield, all of whom refuse to

be named, the point I heard made over and over

again is that, with the High Street so

spectacularly good at everything previously the

preserve of the designer - cashmere sweaters,

giant bags, impeccable tailoring, gorgeous prints

and chiffons and silks, even wedding dresses, for

goodness' sake - only fur (avoided by every High

Street store, including the formerly

rabbit-retailing Zara) can still be thought of as

exclusive.

 

Wearing a real silver fox is now the only status

symbol left for those silly enough to care about

such things. When I asked Saskia Cox, the owner

and buyer of the Diverse chain of boutiques, why

she insists on selling fur in her shops, she told

me: 'Fur is such a luxury. It's opulent, it feels

nice to wear. Ooh, and Kate Moss wearing it

definitely helps.

 

'I agree that it is a backlash against the High

Street. If you buy a fur coat from Topshop, it is

going to be fake and it will become shoddy after

only a month of wear. I only have rabbit fur in

the shop at the moment, by a label called Antik

Batik. Rabbit is pretty mainstream. It's a

by-product, no worse than eating meat.' I told

her that rabbits are farmed in terrible

conditions. A large proportion are bred and

killed purely for fur. The RSPCA says you should

not assume it is a by-product. 'Really?' she

said, surprised. 'I didn't know that. I would

think twice about stocking it next year.'

 

Maybe it is time we all started to think twice

about this issue. When I challenged Joseph on the

amount of fur in its store, a spokesperson sent

me this: 'Joseph, in line with designer brands

and high fashion brands, has responded in its

Autumn/ Winter collection to the growing demand

from its customers for the comfort and warmth of

fur. This is undeniably a growing trend but we

are extremely selective in our use of fur

products.' I will leave the last word to Stella

McCartney, who told me yesterday: 'For me, it is

a principle. I just don't understand why these

beautiful creatures have to die for someone's

coat. It is both medieval and barbaric, and I

think there are plenty of alternatives out there.

Comfy? Warm? The very idea leaves me cold.'

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with

French and Spanish language subsections.