Foxy Fur

I went to a wedding at the weekend. The groom is a friend that I’ve known for a long time and it was, as expected, a very stylish affair. We had all previously joked that the groom was in danger of upstaging the bride, any bride in fact. He’s always immaculately dressed and has been described as ‘ridiculously’ good looking to boot. As the bride made her way down the aisle, it was quite clear no-one was going to be stealing her limelight.
As the day progressed, it started to get a bit chilly and one of the bridesmaids reached for her fox choker, which was a very real fox choker complete with the fox’s head. Now people generally know exactly how they feel about wearing fur and fall into two camps – love it or hate it, appalled or impressed. You either want to start an animal rights demonstration there and then or figure the animal is dead anyway which then sparks a debate as to whether the animal was killed in a humane way or not.
Personally, I appreciate the beauty of real fur and amid all the controversy, if I see someone wearing fur – it doesn’t offend me. I’m definitely on board with animal rights and I don’t think animals should be killed for human vanity but, as naive as it may sound, I like to think that anyone who is bold enough to wear real fur has either inherited it, or acquired it as a by product of the animal being killed, as opposed to the animal being killed for its fur.
Having said that, I didn’t particularly appreciate the carcass slung over this bridesmaids shoulder. I couldn’t fully concentrate on what she was saying because the fox, with its eyes wide open, was staring at me. I’m sure it was quite disconcerting for most people. Not only that, I was eating and I don’t really think the dinner table is the place for foxes, dead or alive.
Despite the controversy surrounding real fur, heightened in the ninety’s with PETA’s famous supermodel campaign ‘ I’d rather go naked than wear fur’ featuring models like Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell, the allure has crept back over the years with over 400 designers using it.
So what about vintage fur? For a lot of people this is a grey area between fashion and animal rights, the reason being because the animal was dead long before animal rights were considered and no new animals need to be killed. Is it then ok to wear vintage fur or inherited fur because other people find it more acceptable? That depends on whether wearing real fur is dictated by your sense of morals or by what others think.
I’d say, if you can morally justify it, wear it.