Fur.
Fur?
Now that the temperatures are quite punishing (as it was my day off and -25 Celsius outside I chose to stay under the quilt until gone midday waiting for it to warm up a bit) I'm seeing more and more [elderly] women dressed in fur. Head to toe. And many people with touches of fur.
I was wandering about town for over an hour today and my legs were cold but everyone is walking around in jeans. Unless I have skates slung over my shoulder I don't feel that I can really get away with wearing my BRIGHT PINK ski pants around town. At least Eibhlin's are black so they could just be slightly chavvy trousers, mine are most definitely ski pants. However, however, my torso was not a bit cold. My winter coat may not really be what elderly ladies go for but for the price of a fur they could surely find a chic down-filled coat.
I've never worn a fur coat nor a down-filled one so I wouldn't know how warm they are but most people here seem to survive just fine on the latter and synthetic fabrics. One of the ladies I saw today did not even look terribly warm in her ankle length fur.
Fur is something that often comes up in fashion debates. And it seems a lot of people I consider to be stylish do wear fur. Although many of these say it is okay because the fur is vintage and that's recycling, right?
But here, while I've only seen elderly women wearing fur coats, I've seen people of all ages wearing fur. Including myself. !. Yes. I have some beautiful white earmuffs and they are far warmer than anything else I've found. I bought them because they look lovely and feel wonderful and were not a bit expensive. At the time I did look for something saying what they were made of - not a sign. After the purchase I looked at them more carefully and made an educated guess that the outside is rabbit (I've had two pet rabbits, I refuse to eat rabbit. I wear it almost every day) and the inside is sheepskin. This was then confirmed by a teacher who said I'd made a wise purchase and regularly greets me with ah, c'est le petit lapin. Guilt. Toasty cute guilt.
I know some of the other assistants have fur hats and you can buy winter coats with fur trimmed hoods. I've seen many people wearing such items. The fur on my hood is most definitely fake and looks decidedly fake. It also doesn't have the warming properties but does certainly help at keeping the snow off my face.
I can't see any reason to wear fur in Britain even if this winter has been somewhat colder than in the past. I think it a lot less socially acceptable but here it is tradition. I'm not even sure how much of it is a style thing as the women I saw in the bank were not chic-ly dressed. Perhaps it is something they accepted and never thought to question.
As a child I remember we had fur-things in our loft that belonged to great aunts and grandmas. They may still be there, I don't know. I liked them, they felt nice. I don't like the look of fur coats - they're too much - but I love to stroke them. When I was in Chicago I saw a bright pink hat that felt wonderful and I knew instantly that it was real fur. The label confirmed the fact. Guilt again.
I wouldn't buy a hat or a coat, new or vintage. It is too much. The animal was definitely killed for its skin. I can at least hope that animal who gave its skin for my earmuffs was killed for food ...or just died of old age...?
My problem with the "vintage" argument/excuse is that it is saying fur is stylish and fur is okay to wear. If you see someone wearing a fur coat you cannot know whether they bought it new or second/third/fourth etc hand. The problem with "vintage" is that the term is used to mean a great range of things. From pieces that have really survived the decades (I'm talking pre-1960) to second hand. This can surely be abused. Your mum bought a fur coat and when you were old enough passed it on to you? Vintage. Hmmmm.
There are adverts on TV here for shops that sell just furs. And from the view I get of America (TV/film/Internet/brief visit) it is just a lot more acceptable on this continent.
It isn't even that I'm vegetarian. A year in France saw to that. I'm just not too fond of meat and I rather like animals. Not enough to regularly donate to animal charities or adopt a lot of pets though. Presently, my one (slightly inadvertent) foray into this somewhat dubious look has this advantage: it is like having a pet that you don't have to feed, will never get sick and you don't have to worry about it dying. This one accessory is like cannabis - a gateway into a whole other world. In this case I'm thinking more taxidermy than drugs.
I don't know if I'll wear my earmuffs next winter.
