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Selected free content on animal aesthetics, fabrics, and sustainable substitutes.
Fashion and animals have moved in the same pack for centuries. Fashion has drawn inspiration from the beautiful patterns and forms found in the animal kingdom, and relied on raw materials such as leather, wool and fur.
However, this synergy has been far from altruistic – the ethical and environmental costs of fashion’s animal adoration have prompted designers, scientists and activists to innovate new and more sustainable ways to show their appreciation. Whether the fashion industry has truly been able to change its spots, is an ongoing debate, but undoubtedly fashion is beginning to explore new directions.
Animal Aesthetics
When asked why the fashion industry loves leopard print, Donatella Versace remarked, ‘So we can feel closer to something that is breathtakingly beautiful, graceful and precious... and just a little bit dangerous’ (2018). Animal print has frequently appeared on the runway, to inject collections with both glamour and gaucheness, with it being a signature of designers Christian Lacroix, Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli, to name just a few. Perhaps one of the most explicit and iconic animal-inspired runway shows was Alexander McQueen’s AW 1997 ‘It’s a Jungle Out There’, which can be viewed in full on the Bloomsbury Fashion Video Archive.
Beyond the runway, the connotations of animal aesthetics have taken on a myriad of forms. Barbara Brownie and Danny Graydon provide a careful examination of the psychology behind animal masks and costumes donned by superheroes, ultimately proposing that: ‘By dressing as an animal, the superhero is able to distance his civilized human self from his savage alter-ego, and in so doing reinforces, through contrast, the humanity of his civilian self.’ Lucy Fischer traces how animal influences within Art Nouveau possessed a gender dimension, with serpent bracelets and hornet broaches implying a primitive and non-benign element to womanhood.
Leather, Fur and Fabrics
Animals have always been the very fabric of fashion: leather, fur and wool are foundational raw materials within the industry, and have been used by a range of cultures and civilisations for centuries. Discover how feathers and fur were used extensively in US fashion from the nineteenth century to the late twentieth century, with the fashion media both reporting on and perpetuating animal cruelty. Jonathan Faiers offers an astute dissection of Alexander McQueen’s ‘Eclect Dissect’ FW 1997 couture show, which demonstrates the transformative power of animal incorporation through flamboyant pheasant feather headdresses and gigantic muffs of raccoon tails.
Beverly Chico details how Inuit populations inhabiting Siberia, Alaska, northern Canada, and Greenland use fur in their hats due to thermal and water/mosquito repellent qualities. Fabri Blacklock explores the skin cloaks worn by indigenous men and women in southeastern and Western Australia. Each family had their own design, ‘momarrai’, incised onto the cloak, and there are only fifteen skin cloaks located in museums within Australia and overseas.
Sustainable Substitutes
While fashion is far from being a sustainable industry, considerable strides have been achieved in both reducing unethical animal practices and creating alternatives to animal-based materials.
Discover the bio-material Mylo™, launched by biotech company Bolt Threads in 2020. Mylo is an animal-free leather alternative made from renewable mycelium (the branching underground structure of mushrooms). The New York Times reported that rival brands adidas, lululemon, Kering, and Stella McCartney all signed on to partner with Bolt Threads to create products from Mylo. Learn more about the ingenious synthetic leather made from kombucha tea by researchers at Iowa State University. The business case by Alice Payne and Luis Quijano, focuses on the experimental work of Nathalie Spencer, a London-based materials researcher and designer who designed a vegan and circular alternative to wool by collecting the wasted leaves of pineapples from local markets and crafting their fibers into a woven textile for fashion.
Lisa Heinze Lake astutely observes how many of the original sustainability pioneers were designers who had a dual role of educating customers and designing from improved materials and ethical supply chains, all while facing huge financial precarity.
It is hoped, as Yuniya Kawamura surmises, that as sustainability has become the ‘new status symbol and rhetoric of the twenty-first century’, designers, activists and scientists will be motivated to continue to innovate.
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