BY THE ALIMOCHE TEAM
25 October 2022
It lines cuffs and collars, and adds a natural-looking edge to coats and outerwear. It spills out of closets and into bedrooms and living rooms, creating romantically rustic pelt-esque scenes, but with none of the apparent cruelty, giving consumers the illusion of guilt-free styling. However, behind the greenwashed plush exterior looms a petroleum-based byproduct, stuffing landfills instead of pillows. For faux fur is exactly what it says on the tin: artificial in every way, deceiving to the eye, the wallet and to our planet itself.
Behind the fluffy exterior hides entangled threads of oil-based deceit.
Photo credit: Vita Leones via Unsplash
When everyday consumers think of fur, it is natural to assume their vision of the fur industry is tens of thousands of squealing, screeching foxes or weasels crammed into tiny cages, caked in blood, awaiting skinning by vicious fur merchants. It is therefore also natural to assume faux fur exists completely “cruelty-free”, in that due to the lack of direct bloodshed of animals in order to create the clothing or furnishings in question, the consumer is manipulated via the petroleum industry to feel morally justified for investing in such a byproduct.
While it must be acknowledged that part of the commercial fur market nowadays still does treat animals in such deplorable conditions, including the barbaric factory fur farming, due to the rise of resale platforms for secondhand clothing including vinted furs, such as Ebay, Depop and Vinted, in addition to online marketplaces vending deadstock furs which did not sell upon initial sale. Due to secondhand furs becoming more readily available via online commerce, in addition to their prevalence at antique fairs and physical marketplaces, including those on Portobello Road in London, it is evident the resurgence of the availability of fur without the initial price tag of morality as the consumer of a vintage fur piece is no longer the primary bloodshedder, and is therefore able to enjoy a real fur piece guilt-free.
The multitude of hues readily available in faux fur are almost interwoven with the multitude of lies presenting faux fur as the “guilt-free” option in fashion.
Source: EVG Kowalievska via Pexels
But why emphasise the greenwashing of the faux fur industry? Faux fur is defined as a “synthetic pile fabric designed to emulate real fur, made from a blend of acrylic and polyester.” Unlike real fur, which is essentially the tanned or treated hair and skin of the animal, fashioned into a usable item, consisting of the keratins and proteins of the animal itself, the cuticle of faux fur is completely plastic. There is nothing organic within faux fur, in that due to the textile being composed completely from acrylics and polyesters, it does not naturally biodegrade in the same manner as a real skin or fur, as there is no organic matter to be degraded. Instead, as the faux fur breaks down, it often sheds its fibers. Once these fibers are shed, they further break down into microplastics, pervading waterways, oceans and groundwater.
Furthermore, the intensitivity of the labour involved within producing faux fur is immense. Yeong-Hyeon Choi and Kyu-Hye Lee in their article “Ethical Consumers’ Awareness of Vegan Materials: Focused on Fake Fur and Fake Leather” highlight that consumers are not aware of the carcinogenic vinyl chlorides present within faux fur in order to render the final product as flame-retardant. The two authors also highlight that through use of the word “vegan” within the marketing of faux fur, consumers believe it is the better option, despite the large-scale environmental damage emitted through the creation, dye and manufacture of faux fur as a textile; exposing workers to dangerously high levels of hazardous dyes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, causing intergenerational health issues, including but not limited to respiratory conditions. The microplastics emitted from faux fur are much more hazardous to the environment on a larger scale than the individual damage caused by the real fur industry. Thus, the question arises, can a product marketed as vegan really be classed as vegan due to its impact on ecosystems on a larger scale?
There is a bitter irony between faux fur’s imitation of animals to prevent harm and its overall greater environmental damage.
Source: Unsplash
Aside from the limited environmental impact generated through real fur in conjunction with the haphazard, almost intentional damage caused through producing faux fur, the production of real fur as a new product can prove to be both environmentally-friendly and economically-boosting to indigenous communities. In Lappland, a region in the northern part of Scandinavia, many of the Sami indigenous people are dependent on reindeer herding and farming as their main livelihood, and this is echoed in the depths of Siberia, wherein the language Forest Enets revolves around the production of reindeer meat and breeding of reindeer as the main way of life. Due to the bulk of the fur of the animals in question, reindeer fur is a byproduct of the indigenous reindeer meat industry. If the fur is not used to create tangible, wearable or usable items, the fur simply becomes a waste product of the industry, which is akin to leather being a byproduct of the dairy and beef industry. By using the fur in such a manner, real fur therefore grants economic access to indigenous groups including the Sami, in addition to repurposing a byproduct from the meat industry, highlighting that the use of non factory farmed furs reduces waste, therefore is considerably more environmentally friendly while simultaneously supporting indigenous livelihoods.
The Real Rug Company produces and markets real animal fur pelts and skins at an affordable price, competing with faux fur manufacturers and fairly paying the herders in Northern Scandinavia and Siberia for their logistics and production of the textile.
The wool, or fur, is slowly being lifted from the eyes of the customer, through the resurgence of vintage furs, in addition to the further ethical stance of waste-reducing furs being purposed into furnishings, textiles and clothing. These furs do not shed microplastics, and naturally biodegrade over time, demonstrating their competitive advantage over the faux fur monopoly. The greenwashing from environmental activist groups, including the infamous PETA “I’d Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign, shamelessly touting plastic over natural keratin, cannot be considered “ethical” nor “vegan” therefore, as the question remains: is it truly ethical to tout a product more damaging on a larger scale to the environment?
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