‘Fashion finally needs to disown fur’, according to Vogue

Iconic fashion magazine Vogue has shocked fashion lovers everywhere by declaring that it’s time for fashion to ‘disown fur’.

The magazine has received heavy criticism in the past for featuring fur, including a full-page advert for wearefur.com in 2018, showing three models in opulent fur coats. However, Vogue seems to have done a 180 and is now declaring fur officially out.

This decision comes after an outbreak of a mutated strain of Covid-19 at a mink farm in Denmark spread to humans, infecting 12 people. The outbreak led to the cull of millions of mink across the country due to concern that the mutation could jeopardise potential vaccines for the virus.

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‘A crucial turning point’

In the article on British Vogue, culture writer Rosalind Jana declares this scandal ‘a crucial turning point for the global fur trade’. Fur is not the indicator of wealth and luxury it once was. Instead, it is seen as a ‘retrograde product mired in unjustifiable ethical issues’. For example, London Fashion Week banned fur on the catwalk in 2018, while the Queen made the switch to fur’s faux counterpart last year. Moreover, the UK government is considering banning the sale of all fur post-Brexit.

The outbreak and subsequent cull of millions of mink is certainly bittersweet, however, it brings the hope that we could be saying goodbye to fur for good. It’s hard to tell if this will be the reality, but with a strain on the industry, it brings another opportunity to analyse whether fur really has a place in the modern world.

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