Your responsibility as a designer

[rockitgirl]

I believe that no matter what industry we enter, if we become a professional in that field we have a responsibility to carry out our job and influence others in a healthy way. There have been some recent discoveries that cats and dogs have been being used in fur garments, even "faux" fur and "fun" fur, and as many of these countries that produce most of the world's fur have no animal cruelty laws the animals are often skinned alive because it's cheapest. It is your responsibility as a designer to be educated about this, afterall knowledge is the best weapon.

I am not making this post to be anti-fur, but I am suggesting that everyone should be educated and should familiarize themselves with this part of the industry. If you chose to use fur in your garments, or buy fur for yourself, even "faux" or "fun" fur, I believe you have a responsibility to make sure that fur was acquired in a humane way and that the processing of it was not damaging to the environment.

The link I share below contains a lot of information about this and I urge you to at least browse it so that one day you are not one of those designers putting dog or cat fur trim on your jackets because you lacked the basic knowledge to make sure what you were buying, whether real or perceived to be "faux", is actually what you think it is and was acquired in a humane environmentally friendly way.

To the mods: I hope this link is okay, I am not advertising for the site, only offering it up for education and if we do not educate ourselves we will make the same mistakes as designers before us. I for one would not like to see this type of treatment in the fur industry. (Actually I'd be happiest with no fur industry but that is only my own personal opinion and I do not wish for this thread to be about the right or wrongness of fur)

http://animalwatch.ca/fur_dogaandcat.htm

 

[Beata]

good point rockitgirl. i totally agree that as a designer you have certain responsibilities and this is def. one of them. i'm against using real fur i'd rather have it be faux but now who knows if it even is faux anymore. thanks for the link

 

[sinople]

good point rockitgirl. i totally agree that as a designer you have certain responsibilities and this is def. one of them. i'm against using real fur i'd rather have it be faux but now who knows if it even is faux anymore. thanks for the link

Faux (Synthetic) fur is pretty easy to tell apart, just based on texture. It has a plasticky feel to it. (Even the good quality stuff.) Real fur has a drier sort of feel.
As far as trims go, check when you purchase it. If it has a knit backing to it from which you can see the tufts of fake fur having been looped into, it's synthetic. (You could, I suppose, tuft in real fur into a knit backing, but I don't know why you would.)
Otherwise, there's the burn test: You get yourself a teeny tiny swatch and a lighter. If it melts it's synthetic, and you're good to go. (Also, here's a hint: if it's being sold on a bolt, it's synthetic. You wouldn't believe the number of people who shrieked "eww, dead animals" at the bolts of fake fur we sold in the fabric store I used to work at. I was always like "Yeah, um, animals are noted for coming in 44" widths by several yards in length." Sorry, cluelessness bugs me.)

 

[renferme]

Just to add: in the EU - you have to know what a garment is made of as it has to have it's content correctly labelled by law.

 

[rockitgirl]

I was always like "Yeah, um, animals are noted for coming in 44" widths by several yards in length."

hahaha yah some people are clueless for sure. The articles on that website argue that many times fur is labelled incorrectly as faux when it is real, mostly for trims and plush animals. Also in Canada if it is fur it only needs to be labelled as animal fur, not specified as the TYPE of animal so it could be cats or dogs for example. I'm not sure what the EU rules specify. The worst part though is I saw this interview with a fur boutique owner and he said that he has bought many things that were supposed to be faux and when they arrived he could tell they were real. He suggested that price is an indicator because good quality synthetic is much more expensive than catfur so he said if it sounds too good to be true it is.

 

[Lena]

designer responsibilities come much further than the use of fur.
ethical sourcing and manufactoring, avoiding copying other designer collections, paying full adult wages and focusing on originality and quality both in design and in construction should also be taken in consideration.

 

[rockitgirl]

good points Lena. Do most fashion programs include a ethics or responsibilities program? I know in my engineering program there were LOTS of courses and topics on these things.