I’ve been thinking about fur coats since I saw the Super Bowl teaser ad (great spot, by the way) a few days ago. So it was interesting to be at the Belle Isle Brewery in Oklahoma City last night and see something I hadn’t seen in decades – a woman wearing a full-length mink coat.
Having lived in Los Angeles for 30 years, until 2020, may explain part of it. I remember the provocative sight of a woman protesting animal cruelty, costumed to look like a big cat, in a cage on display at Downtown Santa Monica’s busy Third Street Promenade, a major shopping destination location – I couldn’t find my pic of that, but here’s a similar one from Hollywood, 2008:
And there was the period when the word out was that wearing a fur coat might get the wearer doused in red paint – if that were an urban myth, it did apparently put fear in fur wearers. Overall, furs as fashion have declined significantly, thanks to a concerted campaign to end wearing fur by animal rights activists, and PETA in particular. In 2019, California became the first state to ban fur sales, and cities in Florida, Massachusetts and Michigan have passed similar legislation.
While in recent years, there’s been a tremendous increase in awareness of the harm of fur farming and fur trapping, and a real movement away from wearing fur in some countries of the world, with many in the fashion industry agreeing – Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Moncler, Stella McCartney, Versace and others have stopped, or will stop, using fur in their businesses – there’s still ignorance. My favorite example of indulgence and being out of touch remains Rihanna’s appearance at the 2015 Met Gala:
Rihanna’s get-up, concocted by a Chinese designer, required the death of many foxes.
But back to Mary J. Blige (coat portion starts at 1:40) and Snoop Dogg (coat at 3:17) and the Super Bowl teaser …
Real or faux?
One would have hoped that the Super Bowl and advertisers would have learned from a prior fur-wearing controversy when rapper Big Boi wore a fur coat at the Super Bowl.
Several attempts to get an answer from Pepsi, who is sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show, didn’t generate a response. The last I communicated with PETA, they didn’t know, but were checking. PETA did say that Mary J. Blige has worn both real and faux fur in the past, including a faux Burberry coat for the new issue of Elle magazine.
Seems the best way to go is no fur – real or faux, as even wearing fake fur may send confusing signals.
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Super Bowl Fur
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Is it real fur or faux?
I’ve been thinking about fur coats since I saw the Super Bowl teaser ad (great spot, by the way) a few days ago. So it was interesting to be at the Belle Isle Brewery in Oklahoma City last night and see something I hadn’t seen in decades – a woman wearing a full-length mink coat.
Having lived in Los Angeles for 30 years, until 2020, may explain part of it. I remember the provocative sight of a woman protesting animal cruelty, costumed to look like a big cat, in a cage on display at Downtown Santa Monica’s busy Third Street Promenade, a major shopping destination location – I couldn’t find my pic of that, but here’s a similar one from Hollywood, 2008:
And there was the period when the word out was that wearing a fur coat might get the wearer doused in red paint – if that were an urban myth, it did apparently put fear in fur wearers. Overall, furs as fashion have declined significantly, thanks to a concerted campaign to end wearing fur by animal rights activists, and PETA in particular. In 2019, California became the first state to ban fur sales, and cities in Florida, Massachusetts and Michigan have passed similar legislation.
While in recent years, there’s been a tremendous increase in awareness of the harm of fur farming and fur trapping, and a real movement away from wearing fur in some countries of the world, with many in the fashion industry agreeing – Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Moncler, Stella McCartney, Versace and others have stopped, or will stop, using fur in their businesses – there’s still ignorance. My favorite example of indulgence and being out of touch remains Rihanna’s appearance at the 2015 Met Gala:
Rihanna’s get-up, concocted by a Chinese designer, required the death of many foxes.
But back to Mary J. Blige (coat portion starts at 1:40) and Snoop Dogg (coat at 3:17) and the Super Bowl teaser …
Real or faux?
One would have hoped that the Super Bowl and advertisers would have learned from a prior fur-wearing controversy when rapper Big Boi wore a fur coat at the Super Bowl.
Several attempts to get an answer from Pepsi, who is sponsoring the Super Bowl halftime show, didn’t generate a response. The last I communicated with PETA, they didn’t know, but were checking. PETA did say that Mary J. Blige has worn both real and faux fur in the past, including a faux Burberry coat for the new issue of Elle magazine.
Seems the best way to go is no fur – real or faux, as even wearing fake fur may send confusing signals.