Little Difference #19 - Wearing FurI've lived the majority of my life in Seattle, Washington (that's well over 30 years!!) and I've never seen anyone wearing a fur coat. Well, that's sort of true; mostly true. Just don't count the rabbit fur coats from the 70s and early 80s. A girl in my 3rd grade class had one. Um, and don't count the floor length mink coat, Mrs. Cotter, the little old lady who lived next door to my family, had. Then it's true - I've never seen one worn. Fur is not worn in Seattle. At least the Seattle that I'm familiar with.
You can imagine my surprise then moving to Luxembourg and seeing full length fur coats AND matching hats being parading all over the country. It is quite a sight, I assure you. Women out on the town or just going to the market decked out in head to toe fur. I still can't help but stare. I'm a starer anyway. Yes, mostly it's the older generation with the fur. But not always. Not always.
In a country that wears fur it is not surprising at all that there are frequent Stop Animal Cruelty protests here. By frequent, I mean I've seen 3 since we've lived here. I don't remember the name of the organization that protests here. They set up booths in the city center with graphic pictures, brochures, and bull horns and the works. They are able to protest here as long as they don't protest the specific shops that sell fur.
So, tell me, what is the fur culture where you live?
To be fair I took this picture in Metz, France. Metz is only 45 minutes away from Luxembourg City. And it could have just as easily been from Luxembourg. The timing just happened to be right in Metz. Here is one I took in a Pizza Hut in Luxembourg. Yes, we eat at Pizza Hut. Sigh.
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7 comments:
I would agree with you that Seattle is not a fur wearing city. In the 4 years I lived their Eddie Bauer, Northface, Timberland are more the style than anything else. I remember my husband going on a business trip to NYC and saying everyone wears black there. Anyway, I live in the south (Georgia), so there isn't much need for fur. Here the style is flip flops and painted toe nails.
Whether it's Sun Valley, Manhattan, Milan, or Luxembourg.. Furs are worn for their warmth, durability and yes STYLE. They aren't worn more in public due to the many who have been intimated by a pseudo opposition to furs. Sure, there are plenty of anti-fur types, but a large majority of people polled would wear fur, or don't care either way. That's the way it should be.
I just moved to Australia from Arctic Canada. Definitely no fur wearing going on here and my in-laws are both fascinated and appalled by the fur outerwear that we used back home.
I spent over 6 years in the Arctic and I can tell you that fur is the warmest thing around when it comes to gloves/mitts/boots/etc. I was initially against fur when I moved up there but I saw how it was such an important part of the native culture and they took a lot of pride in being able to create warm garments out of things "off the land" (most of the garments are seal skin, moose/caribou and beaver).
In some ways I might still be against fur since for a lot of people it's a fashion accessory and not used as a necessity. I might not be as shocked about it as I used to be though!
in Japan rabbit fur is popular, not full coats but hats, scarves, trims... the skins are actually imported from China, they use the meat there for food and the skins would be thrown away otherwise.
It is not the done thing to wear fur in the UK, not unless you would like it splattered with paint from an activist!
I live in Maine. Only the tourists wear fur coats here - and if they knew what we thought of them (especially around hunting season) they wouldn't wear them either! But, I must say, every once in a while I see a really great fur coat at a second-hand store, and I think about how luxurious it would feel to wear one...
I think it's a real shame that fur is on the out. Yes, there are some horrible practises out there that have led to this - but I'm sure that there is an awful lot of fur going to waste now. I would love to be able to wear some warm fur in the winter.
Fur here too in Sweden and I would agree, these days, it`s practically necessary...It`s been downright cold and miserable and snowing, I would easily say, every day since before Christmas...So much so, that I`ve actually been thinking of going on a month long visit to my parents as I`ve just about reached my fill of snow for this year (and the next!).
;o)
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