Los Angeles is a city of glamour and glitz, but soon, fur will no longer be part of the picture. In September, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to ban the sale and manufacture of fur, becoming the largest and most notable city in the world to do so. San Francisco, Berkeley and West Hollywood have also enacted similar bans.
We've reached a tipping point. A full-length fur may have once been the coat to be seen in, but times have changed. For today's consumers, ethics are as important as style, and fur _ which is unquestionably cruelly produced and environmentally toxic _ just doesn't cut it.
Consumers could once claim ignorance about where fur comes from, but now that anyone with a smartphone can pull up videos of animals going insane on fur farms or being beaten and skinned alive, that's no longer an option.
Most fur comes from miserable farms, which are largely unregulated and grossly inhumane. A PETA expose of a chinchilla farm in Michigan documented that the chinchillas writhed in pain, panic-stricken, after their necks were broken. Footage taken from farms in European countries that make up part of the fur industry's "Origin Assured" marketing scheme shows foxes with skinless paws forced to live beside their decomposing cagemates and a mink with an untreated head wound so severe that the brain tissue is visible. PETA Asia's investigations into fur farms in China _ the world's largest fur exporter _ have revealed that foxes were electrocuted, dogs bludgeoned to death, and raccoon dogs and rabbits skinned alive.
Consumers also now know that the notion that fur is in any way "green" is pure fiction invented by the fur industry. Fur coats and trim, just like other animal skins, are loaded with chemicals to keep them from decomposing in the buyer's closet. This toxic stew includes chromium (linked to cancer), formaldehyde (linked to leukemia), sulfuric acid, ammonium chloride, lead acetate and more. The World Bank ranks the process of fur dressing and dyeing as one of the world's five worst industries for toxic-metal pollution. And a study conducted by an independent research group in Europe concluded that mink fur production causes more harm to the environment than any other material analyzed, including polyester (a petroleum-based fabric).
Nearly every week, we see another sign that fur's time is up. Major fashion brands _ including Gucci, Versace, Donna Karan, Michael Kors, Maison Margiela, Burberry, Jimmy Choo and many more _ are ditching it in record numbers. They join longtime fur foes Calvin Klein _ the first major fashion designer to go fur-free _ Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, Tommy Hilfiger and Vivienne Westwood.
In January, Norway, which was once the world's largest producer of fox fur, introduced a total ban on fur faming, joining Croatia, Germany, Japan, the U.K. and other countries that have taken steps to close fur farms.
Ahead of September's London Fashion Week shows, the British Fashion Council announced that the catwalks would be fur-free.
And global demand for fur is so low that China has been forced to stockpile pelts in storage refrigerators and operate processing plants with skeleton crews. By contrast, innovative, sustainable vegan options are hotter than ever. According to a report by the business consulting firm Grand View Research, Inc., "As textile technology is evolving, consumers are preferring vegan fashion."
Fashion can be fickle, but consumers, designers and trendsetting cities agree on this point: Fur is dead.
