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| Albany Institute, 1875-85 |
How do we feel about faux fur?
And how do we feel about sheepskin?
The reason I ask is because I've been presented with a dilemma.
As many of you know, we're working on some Victorian carriage boots for this Winter. They're going to be splendid and quite fun, in black velvet, with ribbon ties, and....some kind of fuzzy something.
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| eBay |
The Problem With Faux Fur
When I started trying to source some nice faux fur, I learned all kinds of nasty things about the stuff. Faux fur is plastic...and plastic is made from oil. It's a material that is detrimental to the environment, comes from a non-renewable resource, and never biodegrades. It's also not very nice quality. I don't know how you feel about that, but it doesn't make me very excited to use it.
The Problem With Real Fur
Real fur is also a problem. Most of you weren't for it, and as the fur we would have access to in large quantity would not be vintage, and couldn't be confirmed to be ethically sourced, I'm not cool with it either.
But what about sheepskin?
Sheepskin, specifically "mouton," is a food industry bi-product, and I like that as much of the animal is being used as possible, rather than just being thrown away. The mouton "fur" is soft, but also durable, and comes from a renewable and highly regulated resource. It's similar to sheared beaver, with a short, thick pile, and looks and feels quite wonderful. I think this could be a really nice compromise between the earth-ravaging plastic faux fur, and unethical fashion animal fur.
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| FurSource.com - natural mouton sheepskin |
But most importantly, what do YOU think? We want to create the best product we can, something historically accurate, elegant, but also ethical. So do let us know:
