ILLUSTRATION: DANAE DIAZLast January, I posted two images on
Instagram a day apart, and was perplexed by
the comments I received. One image was of
a 1970s fox fur bolero, the other a shearling
blanket. Followers who detested the former
liked the latter, despite the fact that
16 lambs, aged between three to six months,
had been recently slaughtered in order to
produce the custom-made blanket, while
the vintage Gucci fox number was on show
at the brand’s museum and unlikely to be
reissued. On the same topic, Givenchy went
to great pains to explain that its autumn/
winter furs were fake and its shearling was
‘ethical’ (when pushed for an explanation,
it said ‘ethical shearling is from sheep that
are raised for food’) and Gucci swapped
kangaroo skin for long-haired lambskin
to line its signature ‘Princetown’ loafer.
So fur is morally bad, but leather and
shearling are ‘ethical’ because the animal is
also eaten by humans. It is true that a lot of
leather is a by-product of the meat industry,
but some of the best hides from the better
tanneries are sourced from cattle raised
in France and Belgium primarily for their
blemish-free skin. All animal products
have primary and secondary uses, the order
depending on which provides the highest
value. Australian kangaroos are harvested
in a managed way to control their numbers
and their meat is exported worldwide.They are also considered pests by sheep
farmers so may be killed to enable the
production of wool, shearling, lamb or
mutton, the ethics of that being quite hazy.
Some of those who feel fur is morally
repugnant seem OK with sipping a 473ml
grande cafe latte, while up to a litre of
cow’s milk per day per person (in its luid
form and processed products) is consumed
in some European countries. And is it really
ine for gym bunnies to eat 12-eg-white
omelettes? We go through 30 million egs
per day in the UK, mostly produced by
battery-caged chickens farmed intensively
in the EU. Some 50 billion animals are
factory-farmed each year. I think the
emphasis is slightly skewed here, and fur
is just an easy target.
I am very picky about the origin of any
meat, poultry, dairy or ish that I eat, and
very mindful about having a mainly plant-
based diet. And I am just as careful on the
rare occasions that I buy fur.
Today’s consumers should expect high
standards of animal welfare in anything
they buy, wild or farmed, and thankfully
transparency is improving all the time.
We have lost touch with how our food is
made, and fashion is too often made to
be thrown away. All natural resources are
precious, so whatever it is, buy less and
buy better. ∂On the mend
While terms such as ‘ethical’ and ‘sustainable’
may be used with genuine sentiment, they are
also often bandied around with very little care.
Take the following description I came across of
fake fur. ‘Ethical, earth-friendly fake fur made
from cruelty-free sustainable materials’. Sounds
good, right? Well, the fake fur in question is
actually made from:
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reaction involving petroleum, coal, and water,
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which must contain at least 85 per cent of
acrylonitrile, a possibly carcinogenic chemical
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developed originally by Union Carbide, a
corporation best known for the Bhopal disaster
At the end of its life (which is generally much
shorter than natural fur), fake fur is unlikely to
be recycled (90 per cent of plastic isn’t), will not
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ŅDON’T ALWAYS BELIEVE THE HYPEIf it’s worth having, it’s worth keeping.
And if it’s broken, ix it. Plowden & Smith
is my go-to restorer and repairer for art
and furniture. plowden-smith.comAnimal instincts
Picky Nicky on the ethics of creature comforts01
03
Enduring appeal
A classic 1980s Katharine Hamnett design,
this one-piece (like the one I’m wearing
in the sketch above left) is made in organic
cotton. £395, katharinehamnett.com02
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Column
076
THE VINSON VIEW
Quality maniac and master shopper Nick Vinson on the who, what, when, where and why