Friday, August 12, 2005

Fashionable Astrakhan: Wearing Fetal Lamb

I am not a fur kind of girl. But I have no problem w/Tibetans, Aleutians, or other indigenous people wearing the fur of the animals that they eat and use for almost every purpose known to their culture. So, I find this year's autumn fashion statement to be repulsive, cruel, and inhumane (NY Times): Astrakhan, which comes from a sheep called the karakul, is prized for its glossy, tightly curled coat at birth. The fashion industry is about to discover whether customers will balk once they understand the origins of this new-old fur, now at its highest visibility in yrs. Most astrakhan lambs are killed w/in days or weeks of their birth because as they age, the quality of their wool quickly changes from tightly curled rows to a more coarse and wiry pelt. And some examples, called broadtail, often considered the most desirable, are the skins of unborn lambs. I think I would rather freeze to death, thank you.
Posted by Tina :: 12:19 AM :: 0 Comments:

Post a Comment

---------------------------------------