Fur. The question is whether you should wear it or not. Someone thinks a mink fur coat is the female measure of prosperity, while others are convinced that furry skins are worn only by beautiful animals and stupid people. Yet some people are looking for a compromise – even a very extravagant one. For example, designers and experimenters suggest wearing fur accessories only of those animals that have died a natural death or under the car wheels.
More and More People Avoid Wearing Fur
The press has long and repeatedly published reports about how animal rights activists arranged rallies or poured paint over the chic fur coats of celebrities at secular receptions. In addition to the clan of activists, the army of vegans is increasing with every year. In general, the latter are less aggressive, but they also dislike the clothes that used to live their own life; they even buy the shoes that are nothing but an imitation of leather. What if some of these people secretly dream of a warm fur collar during a cold winter?
What is Petite Mort?
Designers of the Boston-based Petite Mort company have decided to run a paradoxical experiment and let the fur haters wear fur. The main condition is that the “raw” material must not be obtained as a result of deliberate human cruelty.
Petite Mort has calculated that nearly 50 million animals are killed every year in the name of human craving for luxury. They die in cages and in pain. In the US alone, the number of four-legged victims that die by accident under the wheels of transport while “crossing the road in the wrong place” is more than 400(!) million. A huge resource potential ends up in the garbage. So why not turn these skins into designer trinkets, saving the life of some percentage of animals, farmed “for slaughter”?
The designers from Petite Mort use this logic and (disputed) philosophy. Labels of this “ethical” brand decorate fur hats in the style of the 1970s, handwarmers, gaiters, collars and boas. And if you do not know the main exotic idea of the company, you can hardly guess what literal “natural” background the furry skins have.
Roadkill Couture
The Petite Mort Company is not alone in their beliefs. For example, the Bostonians have associates, working at the Roadkill Couture project. They turn stuffed animals that have died on the road into high fashion. The Roadkill Couture collection even includes accessories for brides.
Some designers with a flair for taxidermy even manage to turn dead pets into handbags, hair hoops and clutches. Squeamish people are not advised to see this.
And yet, can fur be ethical? Would you agree to wear the fur of an animal which “has died a natural death”?
