Green Fur?

photos Christina Pal

The Fur Council of Canada presents a controversially sensuous show of designers working in fur including the The Canadian Aboriginal Designers Group and other Canadian fashion designers.

Nunavut designer Rannva Simonsen re-interprets old school parkas with antler toggles while established designer D'Arcy Moses sets Victorian colonialism on its head with deliciously beaded deerskin corsets. Zuki's colorful sheared beaver opera coats evoke Poiret's 1930's Paris nights, and Sidney Holloway, not yet out of Ryerson, is off to the races in furs mixed with Swarovski crystals (but unlike Joeffer Caoc, not with pony). The fur was aggressively presented as a sustainable material that supports the culture of First Nations people. The show actually ended with pseudo-protesters carrying signs supporting fur as an eco-friendly fabric.

Many fashionistas have mixed feelings about the material - with most supporting the use of vintage skins or fur trapped by aboriginal folks in a sustainable manner, but feel uncomfortable about fur farms and corporate trapping.

One style veteran irritated by appropriation of the green movement, remarked, "This is not a perspective - its a marketing spin." A photographer who lived in an Innu community was more comfortable with the fur saying, "This is how the Inuit make their living - how else are they supposed to support themselves?"

What do you think??