FASHION HISTORY LESSON: THE REAL STORY BEHIND FAKE FUR

Faux fur depicts the current situation of the fashion business, whether for saving money or rescuing animals.

Man-made fur has gone by many names — mock fur, imitation fur, simulated fur, fabric fur — but the fashion world discovered its favored terminology when Cher Horowitz boldly exclaimed, "It's faux," back in the mid-1990s, when the desire for over-the-top furry accents reached a new high.

Faux fur, perhaps more than any other fashion material, is seen as a political statement as much as a fashion statement. When practically every company is selling some type of furry apparel, it may appear commonplace, but there is something to be said about a material that was originally intended to defraud Mother Nature.

Perhaps we've been taught to believe that wearing a fluffy coat will keep us secure from the weather because of our predecessors' requirements. However, our forefathers did not have indoor heating or any of the other stylish and technologically advanced options that we possess today, so why do we still want to walk outside dressed like polar bears and leopards?

Fur, whether real or fake, is a very contentious topic, with severe environmental concerns on both sides of the debate. While the fur trade is related with animal cruelty and the extinction of some species, the faux fur industry (like most of fashion) frequently relies on toxic chemicals and cheap labor to make millions of clothes at low rates.

To better understand the ongoing fur discussion, we're looking at how fake fur disrupted one of the most important and historically significant industries in human history, and what it implies for the future of fashion.

FUR IN FASHION: A (VERY) SHORT HISTORY

Fur clothing have played an important part in human history in addition to its practical applications such as warmth and protection. Many societies around the world and throughout history have designated certain animal skins for monarchs, aristocrats, and other elite classes. Only monarchs and high priests could wear leopard skins in Ancient Egypt, and later English kings issued royal proclamations between the 1300s and 1600s that reserved expensive furs, such as fox and ermine, for the privileged elite.

Apart from being prohibitively expensive to obtain in the first place, these regulations made high-end fur unattainable (and possibly more desirable) to people of all social classes, while also helping to establish fur as a visual sign of social rank. Fur coats were widely seen as the ultimate emblem of material luxury and power once they became the de facto style for Hollywood starlets and trophy wives in the early 1900s.

By the 1970s, the fur coat had gone from being a coveted commodity to being a target of animal rights activists. International laws, such as the Endangered Species Act of 1973, coincided with a number of anti-fur rallies staged by organizations like as PETA that lasted throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

THE SWITCH TO FAUX

The faux fur industry was inspired not by sympathy for animals, but by the desire of fabric manufacturers to make quick money. imitation fur, like imitation gold and diamonds, allowed individuals to imitate the upper classes.

Harper's Bazaar in the late 1860s suggested certain crochet ways to give the illusion of fur for children's garments and little accessories, which was one of the first mentions of fake fur in the media. This was done primarily for convenience and to save money, since it was considered at the time that no one would choose to forego the actual thing if they didn't have to.