since microplastics have now been found in plACENTAS allow me to reiterate:
faux fur is plastic
pleather literally has plastic in the name
synthetic wool is plastic
stop implying that plastic is good for anything.
“Vegan” fabrics? Yeah that shit is just plastic rebranded
not supporting the fur industry - but remember, vintage furs from thrift stores do not contribute to killing animals and are actually better for the environment than faux fur.
You can also buy fur new if you want. That is not a crime unless you are buying endangered animal furs. It’s also not really worse for the environment or the animals than buying regular meat or eggs from the grocery store, because all those animals are factory farmed, whether for fur, meat, or eggs. Factory farming isn’t solely a problem with fur, and anyway if you want to stop it then you’re better off calling or writing your politicians and getting involved with the larger movement that is trying to end big agra monopolies than only shopping at ‘pure’ retailers. You can’t change the world with your pocketbook, that’s a lie capitalism fed us.
The best furs to buy for warmth are coyote and raccoon, anyway, not mink and such. Sheepskin is also good. Stuff like mink, ermine, and sable aren’t actually very useful in terms of keeping you warm. Vintage bear and beaver are also pretty warm. Rabbit is useless, it sheds and goes bare quickly and isn’t very warm at all. Soft though.
Wool is the only fibre in the world that keeps you warm even when the wool is wet, and silk is among the best baselayers for warmth. Linen is the coolest fibre in the world, better than cotton, has been used for centuries and is a lot less costly in effort and water to produce–cotton is only cheaper artificially.
Down is the warmest and most breathable stuffing for blankets and pillows and it lasts a really long time. Cotton or wool stuffing is available also, but it doesn’t get the loft that down does, nor is it as warm (cotton isn’t warm at all). Remember that stuffing is also made of plastic!
Leather is great stuff, if you take care of it properly. It needs regular care and maintaining, but it will last a really long time if you do, and just get softer and softer over the years. And yes, you can clean it! You use something called saddle soap to clean it with. Patent leather has a plastic coating and may not even be leather these days, unfortunately. Deerskin is very nice, very soft but not very warm.
There’s a movement I first heard about in the historical costuming community, from Pinsent Tailoring: Slow Fashion. It’s a response to fast fashion, and the goals are to have a wardrobe that is more about longevity and quality of the clothing, and also about the clothing being made so that in a hundred years, all that would be left are the metal/horn/bone/shell/wood buttons. It’s very hard to do that with modern shoe soles, but if the heel or insole of your shoe is the only plastic you leave, you’re still doing better than an outfit from Target or something. Making your own clothes is actually not extremely difficult, you can start with extremely simple things, including the Bisexual Shirt (poet shirt), a pair of comfy pajama-style pants, and so on.
Make friends with your local vultures, costume historians, and leatherworkers (which are all, sometimes, also cosplayers)! They’re going to have oodles of resources for where to find natural materials.
Also, support Indigenous businesses!
It was always friggin weird to me that real fur became so controversial and socially offensive among people who still eat meat, like PETA activism actually successfully changed our entire culture and tricked people into thinking that wearing an animal’s skin is Exceptionally Wrong, except I guess cow leather because that’s not from like, a fox, which is like, a dog, and therefore special or something
ALSO
I’m gonna say this as a pro-real-leather person:
The way modern leather is mass-produced involves toxic chemicals and is not great for the planet. At all.
“But if our choices are plastic or terrible chemicals, then what?”
Then you can help people and the planet at the same time, because….
……THERE ARE MANY NATIVE AMERICAN SHOPS ON THE INTERNET THAT SELL TRADITIONALLY-TANNED LEATHER.
It will cost more. But it will also last much longer. I met a dude recently wearing a falling-apart leather jacket. He said he figured he’d have to replace it in the next year or two. Kinderlach, HE BOUGHT IT BEFORE I WAS BORN. I’M THIRTY-TWO. IT LASTED HIM ALMOST FORTY YEARS.
Please consider purchasing from Native-owned traditional leather shops. They would love your business and you will get high-quality, low-impact goods.
