Ugly Fur Garments Also Illegal

By Alicia Dorr in News on Feb 26, 2007 8:06PM

Don't tell Pamela Anderson — the Humane Society of America has uncovered a fashion conspiracy involving dog fur peddled as faux fur.

We're not sure where you or J-Lo stands on dog fur, but apparently many upscale fashion labels, like Tommy Hilfiger and Andrew Marc, have used dog fur on garments sold at upscale stores such as Nordstrom. This isn't even a fluke thing, according to the Humane Society's investigation: of 25 suspicious coats that were tested, 24 were "mislabeled or misadvertised." And by that they mean there are a lot of people walking around wearing man's best friend.

The dog fur, often raccoon dog but also including wolf and coyote in a couple cases, is mainly from China. Most of the designers and stores in question have scrambled to pull the products and offer refunds and apologies (except Andrew Marc, which claims it is on the up and up). Importing dog and cat fur was outlawed in 2000, which we think is a totally surreal thing to have to write both because it even had to be outlawed and because it was outlawed only seven years ago.

This isn't even the first time that the most basic of investigations has ensnared big-name retailers and designers. Now a bill is being introduced in Congress to close loopholes that have led to the abhorrent, industry-wide trend, such as requiring that garments be marked regardless of value (right now those $150 or less don't have to be).

It's not really where you fall on the whole fur-wearing thing that should make this disturbing, but the fact that customers are regularly being deceived on what they are buying. For our own part, we think that it's pretty damn gross to go around wearing a domestic pet, an illegally killed or maimed animal, or an ugly vest with genuine faux fur on it. But, hey, if you want to look like crap, we at least hope that it becomes harder for you soon.

Images via city.sapparo.jp and the Liberty Bell Museum.