Every time we buckle a leather belt, don a fur coat, or slip on diamond earrings, we enter the controversies surrounding these items and the animal, environmental, and labor expenses they incur. Thanks to Ingrid Newkirk and PETA, the ethical issues surrounding fur are all over the news and billboards, and thanks to Blood Diamond, we know more about conflict mining, too. Fortunately, innovations in synthetic products that equal, and in some cases, rival, the quality of these controversial items allow us all to live a little more ethically without sacrificing style.

Fur? I’d Rather Go Naked
Thank goodness you don’t have to. PETA’s multimillion dollar antifur campaign featuring celebrities “go[ing] naked” rather than wearing fur exposed the fur industry’s animal abuses to the public at large. Before the campaign, antifur activists were a marginalized group associated with crazed patchouli-scented, granola-eating Joan Baez fans. PETA’s spilling red paint on Anna Wintour’s lunch and Lindsay Lohan’s coat didn’t help that image.

Now A-list celebrities are adopting the cause, and the opposition to fur has become mainstream. Whereas they once would have been ashamed to be caught on the red carpet wearing fake fur, celebrities now proudly flaunt their faux-fur clothing articles made from fine acrylic fibers. According to WiseGeek.com, acrylic can be dyed to mimic the colors and patterns of real animal coats.

Toy manufacturers have been using the same synthetic fur for years on children’s stuffed animals.

The quality of synthetic fur varies, and some varieties shed easily. When purchasing a faux fur coat, choose one that does not release a lot of hairs when stroked.

Of course, faux fur is not as warm as real fur, but hey, when do you really need to wear real animal skins, unless you plan to vacation in the tundra?

Pleather Rebel
It’s interesting that fur has gotten so much media attention and leather hasn’t. After all, the two materials have essentially the same source: animals’ skins. And not only does leather involve the slaughtering of animals for their hides, but the tanning and treating process is a major environmental pollutant. Yet leather goods are ubiquitous, and the material is celebrated in song, in titles like “Leather and Lace,” “Black Leather,” and “Hell Bent for Leather,” to name just a few. Leather carries connotations of sex and danger, but not necessarily of animal cruelty.

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