The use of fur in fashion sparked debate for many years now, with many organisations and their people dedicating their lives to highlight the cruelty and mistreatment of animals used.
It's not just a question of which camp do you sit in; to wear fur, or to not wear fur? But are you aware of industry behind it? Ignorance is no longer an option with graphic and sometimes disturbing pictures and video that could turn Ronald McDonald himself to a Veganism.
The animal cruelty is not the only issue now, but also the environmental damages. According to Choose Cruelty Free , a non profit organisation , furs are loaded with chemicals to stop them from "decomposing". These chemicals and the ones used in fur production are polluting our atmosphere as well, with it taking a whopping 60 times more energy to produce real furs instead of a faux option.
Groups like PETA (people for the ethical treatment of animals) have campaigned since the 80's and have accomplished many milestones in the fight towards stopping animal cruelty. They have used celebrity endorsements for many of their campaigns, including "I'd rather go naked than wear fur", and more recently "try telling HIM it's just a little fur trim".
Timeline of fur debate using celebrities and different publications.
Although PETA has had many celebrity endorsements and won many cases, their methods are questioned. The shock tactic adverts have been called racist and "perverse" where protestors say using naked women in their campaigns is "exploitation". They have seen a backlash to their adverts, with many of them being deemed too controversial for TV.
Celebrity endorsements do not end with the animal rights groups, a lot of them seem to be happy to pose for various furriers, promoting expensive fur in these credit crunch times. Could times really be that hard for celebs that they are now risking it all for one pay check? Surely in these "go green and ethical times", where you even have to take your own environmentally friendly bag with you just to do your food shopping, posing with a dead animal on you would not see your popularity soar. But Liz Hurley is doing just that in her new campaign for Blackglama, following in the footsteps of Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn. In their days of glamour fur was an aspiration, now with all the extra information we have it doesn't have quite the same decadence but instead a guilty tinge. And the companies life-long headline, "What becomes a legend most?" now raises a lot of new answers.
A recent survey asking if the use of fur in fashion is wrong there was a clear and passionate split between people being "strongly" in favour or against it, showing that it is still an ongoing and important debate worldwide.
One person commented with:
"If it is solely for fashion, yes. If it is for warmth but well-styled, no. Example: in California, i lived near the coast. I remember the last time it actually dipped below freezing one night. No fur. Here, it routinely gets down to single digits at night in January. Sheepskin hat and scarf, down coat."
An immediate reply for another user, said:
"I'm telling PETA on you..."
The EU is putting a complete ban on products that have been tested on animals by 2009, it leads me to wonder, how many years of debating, protests and shock tactics are left before there is a ban on animals being used in fashion.
*Survey created on Ask500people, pictures from Flickr creative commons, dippity timeline*
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