No, Fur is Not "Back"
Fur is very much still dead, no matter how much the industry tries to make you believe otherwise.
I remember the sense of relief as I deleted TikTok from my phone. As the little icon disappeared from my screen, so did a weight off my shoulders - at the grand age of 40, I gave myself permission to stop forcing myself to make half-hearted videos for an anonymous and often rude audience, and to consume content I felt no connection to (no, I don’t want to watch another “sustainability” influencer do a little dance while pointing to arrows with some text about forced labour in the fast fashion supply chain). I wasn’t realising it back then, but another upside to clicking “delete app” was the liberation from the hellish world of “TikTok trends.”
What’s really on-trend?
I follow a lot of fashion content for work, and it seems that these days pretty much every fashion publication is filled to the brim with “the latest TikTok trend” reports. Most of these much-hyped trends seem to revolve around beauty and personal care: skin cycling! hair slugging! scalp…sponging? (your guess is as good as mine). Some of them are downright insane. But quite frequently TikTok does venture into fashion, such as the recent “mob wife” trend: big hair, animal print, lipstick, long nails, knee-high boots…and big fur coats. Inspired by the likes of Sharon Stone in Casino, Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface, and of course the ladies of The Sopranos, TikTok has for some reason decided that this year we should all look like women involved in organised crime.
This, in turn, has prompted some mainstream fashion publications to claim that animal fur, which most of us believed was long dead and gone, has returned.
Where are all the mob wives?
Leaving aside the problematic aspects of emulating and glamourising the mafia (why are so few people talking about this?), I can sort of see why mob wives are in. It was a question of time before everyone got sick of the “clean girl”, “quiet luxury”, and (oh God the worst) “old money” aesthetics. Practical as it may be, subdued style is only fun for so long before the irresistible urge to contrast it with full-on glamour sets in, which is what the mob-wife trend so perfectly emphasises. But what I’ve noticed is that this, along with many other TikTok trends and celebrity-driven fashion fads, seems to be a phenomenon that lives and dies on the app, rarely venturing out into the real world.
Think about it: how many people do you see on a daily basis - in the supermarket queue, at the office, on the bus - looking like Adriana from The Sopranos? My guess would be around the same number of people who are actually scalp slugging or whatnot. It could be because I’m a geriatric Millennial, or because I’ve spent most of 2024 either drinking mango-flavoured beer on the beach in Mexico or running around muddy Brighton parks dog-sitting, but I’m seeing zero evidence of TikTok trends being translated into offline reality. Does anyone actually dress like this in real life?
The runways? More fur-free than ever
Leaving the daily lives of mere mortals aside and stepping into the glitzy realms of fashion, the mob-wife aesthetic has become a gateway to open up the fur debate again. Now, this is an issue that appeared to be done and dusted, only for the likes of VOGUE to proclaim, on the heels of the TikTok trend, that “Fur is back. That’s a problem”. All of a sudden, it seemed like the animal rights movement was taking steps back instead of forward. We thought we were done with fur and could move on to things like leather and cashmere, but here we were yet again, having the same tired debate we’ve had since the 80s.
Only, when digging deeper, the evidence of this supposed return of fur is…well, weak. Of all the brands who publicly, outspokenly banned fur in the last few seasons (Gucci, proclaiming that fur is “not modern”, rapidly followed by Chanel, Versace, Saint Laurent, Valentino, the entire house of Kering, I could go on all day) exactly zero have brought fur back for the mob-wife trend. Dolce & Gabbana, whose entire AW24 collection focused on this aesthetic, were very clear that the furs were faux. And London Fashion Week, one of the four most influential Fashion Weeks on the calendar, just introduced an official ban on fur this season. It followed Copenhagen Fashion Week, a huge former proponent of fur and long-time collaborator of the world’s largest fur auction house Kopenhagen Fur, which has now closed down. Retailers aren’t bringing fur back to dress “mob wives” either - if anything, they’re re-instating no-fur policies. So no, animal furs aren’t taking over the catwalks. Sure, the few brands who never stopped selling fur, like Fendi, are still showing it (and facing the consequences) - but that’s hardly news.
Could this whole “fur is back” nonsense be - hush, hush - the fur industry’s last desperate attempt to revive its dying livelihood? Might it be possible that upon discovering the mob-wife aesthetic, some execs decided to capitalise on the TikTok audience to push a discourse that has no anchoring in reality?
Vintage is in. Fur is not
Articles claiming that “fur is back” often center sustainability: it’s all about vintage fur. So-and-So, 28 years old, from London, wears their grandma’s old ratty fur! But while pre-loved fashion is definitely enjoying an upswing (which, fur aside, is hugely positive news for the planet) in reality what we might be seeing here is more related to second-hand fashion being on the rise overall than fur having a comeback. Sure, there are secondhand furs being worn, along with other vintage garments. But the second-hand wave is not driven by fur in any way. When it comes to fur sales and imports, make no mistake: they are steadily declining in both Europe and the US.
This calls once again for the conclusion that the fur industry is attempting to ride an existing sustainability trend - the rise in vintage fashion, the (justified) backlash against plastics in garments - to claim that fur is back, and subsequently push pelts back on the runways. Fur isn’t back yet, but the trade is working its hardest to ensure it might be.
A misguided “rebellion”
And allow me to laugh at the idea that wearing animal fur is some kind of “rebellion”. Certain Gen Z fur-wearers want to believe that blindly following a million-dollar industry and doing exactly what it wants you to do, parting with your hard-earned cash in this cost-of-living crisis in the process, makes you a courageous rebel. This would be laughable if it weren’t so sad. The million-dollar fur industry is so effortlessly manipulating young consumers while the true, unpaid and un-bought rebels of society have for decades pleaded with people to stand up against injustice. What would these fashionistas be “rebelling” against, exactly? Compassion? Empathy? The defense of innocent animals? Would these “rebels” be able to sit through this entire video? How would they feel about knowing that fur farms pollute communities around them, as well as poison lakes and rivers? Fur is a damaging and dangerous industry, not to mention a completely unnecessary one - and it’s the duty of anyone who loves fashion who wears clothes to rebel against it by simply choosing to wear something else.
The faux stuff is the real deal
Luckily, fashion insiders know that fur isn’t really back. Seasoned fashion editor Sarah Bailey, who used to head up PORTER, ELLE UK and Red and is now International Editor-at-Large at VOGUE Greece and frequent contributor to the Telegraph, is reporting on the debate (and in her article, we can note that indeed most fur garments on the runways this season, save Fendi, are in fact faux), but makes it clear that when it comes to her own wardrobe, she will keep things fake. “I would find it hard to give up the lustre, the swagger and the larger-than-life silhouettes of the faux-fur coats in my wardrobe,” she writes (oh Sarah, how I agree with you). “I always try to invest in faux for life: I have a particularly beloved electric blue Shrimps number that I bought in 2014 and have absolutely no intention of retiring any time soon.”
Bailey’s article mentions biodegradability - for years now, the fur industry has spread the narrative that traditionally made, petroleum-based faux fur is “detrimental for the environment”. That’s unfortunately correct, but…so is animal fur. Due to the harsh processes that animal fur undergoes, to keep it from decaying naturally and “lasting for decades” like the industry says it will, its natural degradation process is significantly slowed down. Furthermore, the chemicals that go into keeping animal pelts intact can be dangerous to wearers’ health, not to mention the environmental impact.
Faux fur, on the other hand, while by no means a perfect solution, is addressing these concerns. Faux fur manufacturer Ecopel’s KOBA material is partly made from bio-based ingredients. It uses 30% less energy and emits 63% fewer greenhouse gases than traditionally made faux fur. Of course, the Queen herself, Stella McCartney, has already championed this material. And Ecopel has more up their sleeve - recently, they launched Flur, a fully bio-based vegan fur without any animal components or plastic materials. “Innovation is unstoppable and we are proud to have designed two new options that we think can be game changers,” their Communications and Sustainability Manager Arnaud Brunois told me. “Our first ever 100% bio-based teddy and a fur textile made entirely with plants. It is an entirely new approach to fur, with a very organic feel and touch, vegan and free of plastic.”
Forward-thinking Danish label Ganni are going for the plastic-free thing too - they are working with innovators BioFluff on bags made from an entirely plastic-free, plant-based faux fur. This fur produces 50% fewer greenhouse-gas emissions than traditional faux fur, while not emitting any microplastics.
All of this proves that material innovation has the potential to alleviate any concerns we have about the impact of vegan materials - but there is no better way to keep killing 100 million animals per year for fashion.
A word from the real Carmela Soprano
I will close with some wise words from the OG mob wife herself, Edie Falco, who portrayed the iconic Carmela Soprano in The Sopranos. She won’t have any of this “fur is back” BS. In a statement, the actor and long-term PETA supporter said: “The Sopranos had nothing on the violence of the fur industry which gasses, electrocutes and peels the skin off animals while they’re still alive. No matter if it’s new or vintage, torture doesn’t belong in our closets. So, if you’re after the trending Carmela Soprano-inspired ‘mob wife’ aesthetic, I suggest grabbing one of the many faux furs out there and leaving animals out of it.”
Good piece
It’s hilarious - they are trying so hard that it sounds suspicious right off the bat.