The Fur Debate

Nothing divides opinion like the wearing of animal pelts, but how does vintage fur come into the equation?

Wednesday 12th October, 2011

For the team who curate Vintage Seekers’ range of original 20th century fashion, there was no question about which labels to stock on the site – Givenchy, Balenciaga, Ossie Clarke, Hardy Amies, the list goes on – but when it comes to what we do or don’t allow materially, we were faced with a far more complex matter: how we felt about real fur.

Soft, silky and snug, from a purely sensual or aesthetic viewpoint fur is undeniably glamourous. Consider Lana Turner and Lucille Ball swathed in clouds of white fur, Greta Garbo peeking out from a huge fur collar in Inspiration (1931), or Marlene Dietrich’s dark silky furs in Shanghai Express (1932). Then again, classic films manage to make smoking look chic too, and that it definitely isn’t – there’s just something about the flickering, sepia-toned quality of old Hollywood movies that recasts the mundane or unpleasant in an inexplicably alluring glow.

Of course, the fact is that each lustrous, cocooning fur garment has an ugly past, which is why fur coats passed down by mothers and grandmothers hang like guilty secrets in the back of wardrobes across the country.

Unfortunately, now the “I’d rather die than wear fur” campaign of the 80s seems like a distant memory, with real fur now prevalent in the collections of Zac Posen, Marc Jacobs, Gucci and Christian Dior for autumn/winter 2011-12. The fact that former PETA models Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell have unashamedly sported pelted coats of late seems to highlight the fickleness and vanity of fashion world – although Stella McCartney, Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren do an admirable job in boycotting new real fur in their collections.

We at Vintage Seekers all unanimously disagreed with designers using real fur in contemporary collections. But what about vintage fur? Should we condemn vintage fur in the same way that today's designers attract criticism for using pelts? Ethically, this is a real grey area and, accordingly, we debated the matter at length.

It seemed wrong that vintage pieces designed and made years before the concept of animal rights was even in the public psyche – just like the health concerns from smoking hardly blighted the consciences of those 40s movie stars and the directors who had them puffing away in each shot – should be wasted and disposed of because we abhor the techniques used half a century ago.

After all, what is the alternative course of action? Round up every vintage coat, stole and fur-trimmed garment and dump it all on a landfill site? It is certainly a great shame countless animals have had to die cruelly for humankind’s vanity and greed, yet now the products are with us, our choice, ultimately, was to put them to good use and cultivate their beauty.

When we sought the opinion of Anne Dettmer, the former and founding president of the Vintage Fashion Guild, she was of a similar mind. “Although I avoid buying modern fur clothing (and cannot entertain approval for the way some creatures are killed - such as seal clubbing) I will accept the wearing and selling of vintage fur,” she says. “Indeed I champion it, if it will mean that those who will wear fur come what may, will wear vintage and reduce the modern fur trade.”

You may at this stage be murmuring the word ‘faux’. Fake fur, the obvious third way in this debate, is not without its faults either. Using dyed synthetic fibres made from chemicals derived from coal, air, water, petroleum, and limestone, it may have a clear conscience when it comes to animal cruelty, but its environmental credentials are disappointing. The British Fur Trade Association found fake fur was responsible for 50 per cent of our toxic nitrous oxide emissions and that it takes a gallon of oil to produce three fake fur coats. It does, on the other hand, take 20 times the amount of energy to make a real fur coat rather than a faux version. While there is evidence to suggest that farmed and fake fur both cause damage to the environment, wearing vintage fur - which has already been processed - has no additional costs to the planet. It is recycling in it purest form.

For those who are concerned about the environment, like the look and feel of fur, but don’t wish to perpetuate the contemporary fur trade, vintage fur seems to be the solution.

Fur is undoubtedly going to remain a deeply divisive topic and not everyone is going to agree with our standpoint, but among our team of veggies, pet owners and animal lovers, it is here we have settled: we will list vintage fur and leather goods, manufactured at least 25 years ago. We hope that every vintage fur item that is bought is one less sale for a brand that retails new pelts.