Ralph Lauren showed his Fall/Winter 2015 collection this morning, and aside from the usual Ralph-errific mélange of influences — the American West meets The Great Gatsby meets ‘30s Hollywood glam — there was also an important mention placed at the bottom of the first page of his show notes:
“Ralph Lauren has a long-standing commitment to not use fur products in our apparel and accessories. All fur-like pieces in the collection are constructed of shearling.”
Lauren always shows on the last day of New York Fashion Week, therefore it’s easy to put both his collection and that note into perspective with respect to the dozens of other designers we’ve been seeing over the last eight days. Simply put: Lauren’s anti-fur stance is not only welcome, it’s needed. The Fall/Winter 2015 runways have been teeming with genuine fur, and yet the conversation about should or shouldn’t it be used seems to have gone radio-silent. PETA, who once used to be welcomed into the tents so an anti-fur discussion could take place for those who were interested, is nowhere to be found. Have they given up? is what I’ve been wondering the past few days.
I’m not advocating the buckets-of-red-paint brigade, because that level of protest does nothing other than inflame lovers of genuine fur: “See those militants?! Their crazy tactics need to be stopped so my mink isn’t ruined!”
Lauren, it should be noted, is on the record with PETA as ceasing use of real fur as of 2007. His extensive use of faux on this morning’s runway is surely the reason for the anti-fur acknowledgement among his show notes, so there would be little wonderment among attendees about whether what we were seeing was genuine or faux. What’s key about that is simply that the pieces Lauren sent down the runway looked quite genuine, and also quite imaginative—all in all, the collection was a beautiful mix of great menswear-inspired tailoring and luxe, American West details; think Wall Street by way of Montana.
And perhaps that’s the most important point of all, that it is indeed possible to craft faux coats, wraps, stoles, etc., that look and feel just as luxurious as the real thing. My question is, Why isn’t the rest of the fashion industry at least attempting to do the same?
