Fur is back, but hopefully not to stay. In the past few months, the popularity of fur coats has risen, not just for mere comfort and warmth, but due to trends like the so-called mob-wife aesthetic, a style perfected by Carmela Soprano. It then became a way to grab attention online with unexpected clothing combinations, as seen on Kendall Jenner, who was the trailblazer for multiple influencers to wear a bikini and fur boots in the snow. It is clear that furwear made its mark beyond the runway. Now, the fashion trend on our screens is making its way to the streets. Why is everyone wearing fur?
On Wednesday, April 9, The New School hosted Joshua Katcher and Hazel Clark in a screening of SLAY, a documentary directed by Rebecca Capelli, at Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, followed by a Q&A. Katcher, a fashion designer, activist and author, spoke to the use of animal products in the fashion industry. The documentary was an investigative piece on the role fur, wool, and leather industries play in its mass production, and the weird obsession with animal skin in the fashion industry.
SLAY, while insightful and stomach-churning, was ultimately yet another public critique on the hypocrisy of the fashion industry which puts elites on a pedestal while exploiting vulnerable animals. This is a conversation we have had time and again. However, it is especially relevant now, as the use of exotic skin, leather, feathers, wool and fur has now transcended the wealthy and made its way to the general public.
The stigma around furwear has suddenly disappeared with the rise of a new, profitable trend. Brands like Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren banned fur between 1994 and 2006, with Kering issuing a fur ban on all of its brands in 2021. While these brands are still standing firm on their decision, others have lapsed back into the ordeal. An investigation by Skye News and Humane Society International (UK) revealed that luxury brand House of Fraser was using real fur for its products even when their no-fur policy was in place. Apparently, all it takes is one celebrity to bring it back before we all drop the act and revert to what we were once fighting against. It seems that fur consumers have reached a new level of ignorance — the New York Post even wrote an article about it titled “Gen Z and celebs are rocking real fur again — and they don’t care if you hate them for it.”
Why are we obsessed with fur in the first place? The very origin of animal skin in fashion dates back to Elizabethan sumptuary laws, introduced between the 13th and 15th century, that aimed to visually separate social classes by preventing people from adorning animal skin unless they were royalty. This idea carried into the modern fashion industry, which clings on to fur as a sign of luxury and status. Regardless of how much fur’s scale of production has changed, the bottom line remains the same — it still conveys power dynamics.
The reason behind this is a phenomena called carnism — the ideology behind why we find it acceptable to harm some animals but not others. According to Katcher, “It depends on the culture, it depends on the time period, what animals are considered to be acceptable to kill and to harm in a specific place during a specific time period,” he said at the talk. “And so fashion carnism takes that ideology of carnism and just puts a fashion lens on it.”
Legitimizing the exploitation of animals in fashion is not something new to us. In uncertain times, it is no surprise that consumers will run towards the aesthetics that reek of the past. “Human beings have a tendency to return to aesthetics that are nostalgic, that are comforting, that establish feelings of control, of protection,” Katcher said at the end of the post-screening Q&A. “And what that means in a fashion sense is that when we are in a turbulent political and economic environment, we’re going to kind of revert to the way things were as a way to comfort ourselves.”
The constant push for newness drives this complex idea. The same way the mob-wife aesthetic was brought on right after the minimalist trend by people who wanted to express themselves in a non-reductive and strategically flashy way, the rise of fur is a result of people wanting change. At its core, it is escapism. Giving in to the illusion that adorning animal skin elevates your social standing makes one feel like they, too, are part of the wealthy. To some extent, it is hard to blame the general public, when the runways, too, are making it evident that they never really cared for the call to end animal exploitation in the garment industry. If Fendi, a brand known for its timeless craftsmanship, refuses to stop using animal skin, why should we?
Capelli’s film is a paramount example of how the fashion industry’s exploitation of animals affects said animals, the environment, as well as the workers trapped in the vicious cycle of unjust treatment. She has laid it out for all to see – what is to be done from here is in our hands.
