With his partner, Tommy Nutter, he outfitted London celebrities
at the tail end of the Swinging Sixties — and beyond — in suits with swagger.
Edward Sexton, a master tailor who, with his business partner,
Tommy Nutter, upended the staid British institution that was Savile Row with
Nutters, a shop with rock ’n’ roll flair and clientele, died on July 23 in
London. He was 80.
His death was announced by his company, which shares his name. No cause was
given.
Mr. Nutter was the shop’s charismatic frontman, and Mr. Sexton was known as “the
wizard with the scissors,” the expert cutter who created the flamboyant shapes
the shop would become famous for: the wide lapels and sharp shoulders, the
nipped in waists and waistcoats, and the sweeping trousers.
The aesthetic was “continental, American, queer and camp,” the journalist Lance
Richardson noted in “House of Nutter: The Rebel Tailor of Savile Row” (2018),
“combined with a keen fidelity to old-school Savile Row craftsmanship.”
Wearing a Nutters’ suit, one client told Mr. Richardson, made you feel like “an
honored custodian of something spectacular.”
When the Beatles marched across Abbey Road in 1969, three of them were suited up
by Nutters. (George wore bluejeans.) That same year, when John Lennon married
Yoko Ono in Gibraltar, he wore a white corduroy suit coat made by Nutters.
When Mick Jagger married Bianca Perez-Mora Macias in St.-Tropez in 1971, he also
wore a white Nutters suit. The bride wore Yves St. Laurent, though she was soon
ordering from Nutters, too. She accessorized the suits with bowler hats and her
signature walking sticks.
Other female customers included the model Twiggy, an avatar of ’60s style, who
was once fitted out in a suit of cranberry velvet trimmed with braid. The model
Patty Boyd and the actress Joan Collins were devoted clients. The aristocrats
came, too — Lord and Lady Montagu had matching Nutters suits — and more rock
stars, like Eric Clapton and David Bowie, along with artists like David Hockney;
Tommy Tune, the lanky American dancer and choreographer; and Kenneth Tynan, the
tart theater critic.
Nutters opened on Valentine’s Day in 1969 at 35a Savile Row, the storied London
street where bespoke tailors had outfitted the British ruling class for more
than a century. Unlike its stuffy neighbors, whose windows were frosted glass,
Nutters’ windows, framed by Corinthian pillars, offered mischievous dioramas
designed by Michael Long — a Punch and Judy show; a mural of Egyptian ruins;
purple and hot pink ostrich feathers.
When Simon Doonan began designing the windows in the mid-1970s, he once filled
them with taxidermied rats outfitted in tiny tuxedos and diamanté chokers. The
interior was scented with patchouli. There were sleek Bauhaus chairs. Empty
champagne bottles were lashed to the door with red ribbons.
The shop had been financed by Peter Brown, Mr. Nutter’s boyfriend at the time
and the former assistant to Brian Epstein, the manager of the Beatles. (When Mr.
Epstein died of an overdose in 1967, Mr. Brown took over some of his duties.)
Cilla Black, another pop star managed by Mr. Epstein, was also a backer. “It’s
going to be terribly posh,” Ms. Black told The Sunday Express just before the
shop opened for business.
Mr. Sexton in 2011. His aesthetic was “continental, American, queer and camp,”
an author wrote, “combined with a keen fidelity to old-school Savile Row
craftsmanship.”Credit...Emma Hardy
In its first year, the shop sold 1,000 suits, nearly half of them to Americans,
including Nancy Reagan, then the first lady of California. Elton John ordered
them in multiples. “It was quite an event going in to Nutters,” John Reid, Mr.
John’s manager, told Mr. Richardson, the author. “You’d write the whole day off.
Maybe you’d have lunch, a couple of bottles of Champagne.”
The Daily Mail called the shop “a whiz-bang success” on its first anniversary.
“We made chic, elegant clothing,” Mr. Sexton told Mr. Richardson. “That’s what
I’ve been doing all my life. Tommy was fantastic at it, nobody could touch him,
socializing and bringing in the right type of clients. There’s never been
another Tommy, and there never will be, and as a team we were dynamic.”
They were a terrific duo at first. Though Mr. Sexton was straight, they called
each other Pamela and Roxanne (Tommy was Pamela, or “Pammie”) and bantered with
each other, the staff and their customers in a swirling verbal mélange of
rhyming Cockney slang and Polari, a secret language often used at the time by
gay Britons.
But Mr. Nutter was too chaotic to be a businessman, and in 1976 their
partnership ended. Mr. Sexton took over the business, and Mr. Nutter floundered
for a bit before signing on with another Savile Row firm. In the early 1980s, he
opened his own shop, Tommy Nutter, down the block from the original Nutters.
Around the same time, Mr. Sexton renamed his business in his own name.
Mr. Sexton would go on to dress the musicians Annie Lennox, Mark Ronson and, in
2017, Harry Styles, whom he outfitted in so-called millennial pink. In 1995, he
took on a young apprentice named Stella McCartney, when she was still studying
fashion at Central Saint Martins. He helped her with her graduation show, which
featured the models Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Yasmin Le Bon. When Ms.
McCartney became creative director of Chloé in 1997, Mr. Sexton worked for a
time as a consultant there.
“My years spent as an apprentice to Edward were some of the most memorable and
valuable in my career,’’ Ms. McCartney told Women’s Wear Daily, adding, “He was
so much fun, a cheeky ‘live life in the moment’ man.”
Edward Sexton was born on Nov. 9, 1942, in London. His father, William, was a
public health inspector, and his mother, Isabelle (Pitt) Sexton, cleaned offices
at the BBC. Edward grew up in the Elephant and Castle, a working-class
neighborhood that lent him his rich Cockney accent.
At 15, he worked as a waiter at the Waldorf hotel in London's West End, serving
patrons dressed for the opera. As he told Mr. Richardson, the experience was “my
first realization that there were a lot of people doing different, nicer things
than either I or my parents were doing.”
He began to buy bespoke suits; he loved the intimate process of having them made
and devoted himself to learning the trade. He took night classes at Barrett
Street Technical College and worked as an apprentice making riding wear for
Harry Hall. He then became an under-cutter at Kilgour, French & Stanbury and
later a full-fledged cutter at Donaldson, Williams & G. Ward, both venerable
Savile Row tailors. “I figured if you’re going to be a good jockey,” he said,
“you better have the best stables.”
It was at Donaldson, Williams that Mr. Sexton met Mr. Nutter, who was working as
a salesman and who was just as eager as Mr. Sexton to venture out on his own.
Mr. Sexton already had a number of his own clients on the side, and together he
and Mr. Nutter began to conspire about opening their own shop.
Mr. Sexton married Joan Carter in 1963 and is survived by her, along with a
daughter, Angela; two sons, Paul and Philip; and five grandchildren. Mr. Sexton
was working until his death.
Mr. Nutter retired from his business in 1992 and died of AIDS a few months later
at 49.
“No one wanted to be a legend,” Mr. Sexton told Mr. Richardson, reflecting on
Nutters’ zesty beginning. “It was just two young fellas working hard, believing
in what they did.”
Penelope Green is a reporter on the Obituaries desk and a feature
writer. She has been a reporter for the Home section, editor of Styles of The
Times, an early iteration of Style, and a story editor at the Sunday magazine.
More about Penelope Green
A version of this article appears in print on Aug. 2, 2023,
Section B, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Edward Sexton, 80,
Wizardly Tailor For Lennon, Jagger and Twiggy, Dies.
September 4, 2010
The New York Times
By ERIC WILSON
The mood was set early at the American fashion awards ceremony at Lincoln
Center in June, an event often likened to the Oscars of the fashion world, with
a guest list that included celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Gwyneth
Paltrow and almost every top designer.
In quick succession, three men were called to the stage to accept their awards
as the best new designers of the year: Richard Chai for men’s wear, Jason Wu for
women’s wear and Alexander Wang for accessories.
It was the first time that all three prizes given by the Council of Fashion
Designers of America were awarded to designers who are Asian-American. That same
night, the fashion council announced three scholarships, each for $25,000, won
by student designers of Asian heritage.
“It’s so exciting,” said Mr. Wu, who became a household name not only in this
country, but also in his native Taiwan, when his dress was selected by Michelle
Obama for her husband’s inauguration. “Not too long ago, Donna Karan and Michael
Kors were the young designers of America. Now there are a lot of firsts for all
of us as Asian-American designers.”
Their ascent to the top tier of New York fashion represents an important
demographic shift on Seventh Avenue. At the Fashion Week that begins here on
Thursday, many of the most promising new designers are of Asian descent, a group
that includes Mr. Wang and Mr. Wu; Thakoon Panichgul, one of the stars of the
documentary “The September Issue,” about Vogue magazine; Prabal Gurung; Phillip
Lim; and Derek Lam — names that are increasingly likely to represent the future
of fashion.
Major design schools around the world have seen an influx of Asian-American and
Asian-born students since the 1990s, partly through their own recruitment
efforts in countries with rapidly developing fashion industries, like South
Korea and Japan, and partly because of changing attitudes in those countries
about fashion careers. At Parsons the New School for Design, roughly 70 percent
of its international students enrolled in the school of fashion now come from
Asia, according to school officials. At the Fashion Institute of Technology, 23
percent of the nearly 1,200 students now enrolled are either Asian or
Asian-American.
“F.I.T. is a pretty diverse place, but this is the most obvious change we have
seen,” said Joanne Arbuckle, the dean of its school of art and design. “It is
remarkable when you compare it to many years ago. I don’t think we ever had
these numbers of students from Asian countries or Asian-American students. And
it is a growing population.”
The rise of Asian designers in America has actually come in several smaller
waves, including one that marked the emergence of Anna Sui and Vera Wang in the
1980s. In the last few years, however, as a new generation of designers has
asserted itself in New York, Asian-Americans have been at the forefront. In
1995, there were only about 10 Asian-American members of the Council of Fashion
Designers of America. Today there are at least 35.
This has happened largely for the same reason that the New York fashion
industry, through the ’80s, was populated most visibly by designers of Jewish
heritage, like Calvin Klein, Ms. Karan, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and Mr. Kors.
Throughout the 20th century, generations of Jewish immigrants had created a
thriving garment district in New York, first as laborers, then as factory
owners, manufacturers, retailers and, eventually, as designers. Many of today’s
Asian-American designers say they experienced a similar evolution from the
factory to the catwalk, since some of their parents and grandparents were once
involved in the production of clothes.
Mr. Lam, whose luxury ready-to-wear collections evoke a classically uptown
ideal, is a designer of Chinese descent who came to New York by way of San
Francisco. His grandparents owned a factory there producing bridal gowns. His
father imported clothing from Hong Kong, but Mr. Lam said he wanted to pursue a
more creative course and enrolled in Parsons, graduating in 1990. Before
starting his label in 2002, he worked for Mr. Kors in New York.
“I grew up around clothes,” Mr. Lam said. “It was like a default. Fashion became
one of the few outlets for Asian-Americans who wanted to put their name out
there.”
When he went out on his own, Mr. Lam, though well received, faced a difficult
road. No one bought his first collection, and he and his business partner had
invested their savings in the business.
But after several seasons, the collection took off. He has since won several
awards, including the accessories prize from the fashion council in 2007; opened
two stores Manhattan; and developed a clothing and accessories line for the
luxury brand Tod’s. During a recent trip to Shanghai and Beijing, he said, he
was stunned by the level of awareness of his work there.
“There is this understanding that there is a group of Asian-American designers
who are coming up in the world, and there is a sense of pride,” Mr. Lam said.
The cultural changes that have enabled would-be designers to pursue their chosen
careers have happened slowly. Ms. Sui told The International Herald Tribune in
2008 that designers of her generation were often asked by their families, “Why
do you want to be a dressmaker when you could be a doctor?”
Mr. Wu said those pressures were still there as recently as a decade ago. “When
I was applying to Parsons, my mother had never heard of it,” he said. “Now,
everyone in the generation after me wants to go to Parsons. Fashion has become a
more prominent career in the eyes of Asian parents.”
Unlike the avant-garde work of Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake —
Japanese designers who took Paris by storm in the 1980s — there is no
discernible aesthetic connection among the designs of Asian-Americans. Alexander
Wang’s street style looks nothing like Mr. Lam’s polished dresses, nor the
colorful mash-up prints of Peter Som, who also consults on sportswear for Tommy
Hilfiger. None would care to identify their styles as “Asian-American.” Carmen
Chen Wu, a Parsons student who received one of the fashion scholarships this
year, noted that she is of Chinese descent, but was born in Spain, “so
technically, I’m a Spaniard.”
But one thing their heightened visibility has done for them as a group is to
create opportunities in Asia, where the realm of luxury fashion had long been
exclusive to traditional European houses like Louis Vuitton and Chanel.
Since his triumph with Mrs. Obama, Mr. Wu has been invited to return to Taiwan
in October to help design a residential building, and he is developing a line of
eye shadows with Shiseido that will be sold throughout China. Mr. Som said his
business was growing faster in Asia than anywhere else, noting that the speed of
information today has made consumers in South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand as
knowledgeable about new designers as they are about the historically major
brands. Mr. Lam said he had been invited to return to China next month to appear
as a judge on “Creative Sky,” a popular new reality television competition.
On that show, aspiring fashion designers compete in a series of runway
challenges, much like those on “Project Runway” in the United States. The major
difference is that the ultimate prize is not the chance to show a collection at
Fashion Week, but something that is now becoming far more prestigious in Asia.
The winner gets the opportunity to go to Parsons — as a student.
September 9, 2007
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:36 a.m. ET
The New York Times
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ralph Lauren took a well-deserved extended bow Saturday
night as he both presented and celebrated his 40th anniversary collection.
Lauren sauntered down the runway at a tent erected just outside the Conservatory
Gardens in Manhattan's Central Park to Frank Sinatra's ''The Best Is Yet To
Come.'' A crowd that included Sarah Jessica Parker, Martha Stewart, Diane Sawyer
and Barbara Walters gave the designer a standing ovation. Fellow top-tier
designers Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Diane von Furstenberg and Vera Wang,
who once worked for Lauren, also were at the black-tie event.
The theme of the spring collection, debuting during New York Fashion Week, was a
day at the races. Some models wore oversized hats with garden-party dresses --
one of the best being a pale-blue floral printed silk plisse gown with a halter
neckline and ruffled jabot -- while others wore menswear-style jackets, ascots
and tailored trousers. Spatlike shoes completed the look.
The jockeys were even represented with crystal-embellished jodhpurs, a yellow
jersey dress with an equestrian print, and a bright pink equestrian-print
taffeta jacket with splashes of blue, white, green and yellow, and a peplum at
the hip.
Spring '08 features more colors than Lauren has shown in years.
The clothes, however, were secondary to recognizing Lauren's long tenure at the
top of an industry always looking for the next big thing.
Lauren is one of the ''nicest, warmest and loveliest'' in the fashion world,
said von Furstenberg, president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.
''He is so successful because he lives his fantasy with such passion. I just
love him,'' she said.
After the last gown -- a slinky and stunning silver chain-beaded gown --
disappeared from the runway and Lauren had his moment in the spotlight, the back
wall opened to reveal an elegant and elaborate party set up in the Conservatory
Garden itself. This was the first private event ever held at the Gardens by a
third party.
A sprawling fountain in the middle picked up the light from the dozen
chandeliers hanging from arched arborways on the terrace and from the hundreds
of candles on the tables.
''Like a Henry James character, he (Lauren) is the last true idealist about
America's imagination of itself,'' said Harold Koda, curator at the Costume
Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ''That makes him the greatest
ambassador of American style.''
September 8, 2007
Filed at 4:13 p.m. ET
The New York Times
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) -- Inside the sprawling tents at New York Fashion Week on
Saturday, beauty was found in the smallest details.
Old-fashioned dressmaking touches, such as pintucks and pleats, showed up in
multiple collections. Macy's fashion director Nicole Fischelis said she thought
customers would appreciate the details in the Max Azria collection, such as the
pintucks on the front of a pretty sheath dress or the ruffles added to a blazer
at the hip.
Catherine Malandrino displayed a knack for artistry -- and drama -- with a
neckline decorated with fabric beads that looked like jasmine buds. At J.
Mendel, presented Friday, designer Gilles Mendel is known to hand-pleat gowns
himself.
Later Saturday night comes one of the anticipated highlights of the week, a
black-tie dinner celebrating Ralph Lauren's 40 years in fashion.
New York Fashion Week lasts eight days, previewing the spring-summer looks of 60
designers for fashion editors, retail buyers and stylists.
CATHERINE MALANDRINO
Catherine Malandrino's spring collection offered a garden's variety of looks,
all rooted in the colors of tangerine, olive and geranium that the designer said
evoke the peacefulness she associates with a small town in the south of France.
A white blouse with a neckline decorated with fabric beads that looked like
jasmine buds paired with an organza skirt with scalloped tiers showed her
mastery of handicraft, and a green gown with a neckline adorned with beads
mimicking lemons, limes and grapes showed her sense of humor.
But she might have crossed the line into too avant garde to be wearable with
overwrought balloon sleeves on jackets that she paired with slim pencil skirts.
No one would want to sit next to someone wearing them, especially at these
crowded fashion shows.
LACOSTE
Marking the 75th anniversary of the Lacoste label, creative director Christophe
Lemaire looked back at the crocodile's life and created a path for its future in
the spring collection.
The brand has its roots in country club sports such as golf and tennis, and
Lemaire found new inspiration in the spirit of Basque region of southwestern
France, home to the golf club Chantaco.
The white outfits that opened the show -- a white blazer with a white ribbon
edge and ankle-length trim white pants on the man, and a white blazer paired
with a crisp A-line skirt on the woman -- surely would have fit the Chantaco
dress code then and now.
Lacoste also offered high-waisted gingham shorts and super-short tennis dresses
for women and colorful flat-front pants rolled into a tapered shape above the
ankle for men.
The best visual from the show was the finale: a rainbow of brightly colored
polos, tennis shorts, bathing suits and cover-ups, representing the core of what
Lacoste is always likely to be.
CYNTHIA ROWLEY
Cynthia Rowley's fashion show is always a trip. This time around, she sent the
models down the runway on bicycles -- high heels and all.
Rowley is known to add a little kitsch to her collections -- biking and summer
sports seemed to be on her mind on Friday. There was a tennis frock and a
crew-team sweater.
Long T-shirt dresses were among the standout items. ''Ringlet'' dresses with
loops of fabric as the embellishment didn't fare so well.
When the looks turned dressier, Rowley turned a chain-link print -- surely
inspired by a bicycle chain -- into a surprisingly serviceable canvas for
cocktail dresses.
Even the pantsuits were looser and more relaxed, and models wore them with
rolled legs so they could hop on the bike just like a green-minded commuter.
The jewelry featured in the show all came from eBay, another nod to
''recycling.''
Many of the items were retro painted enamel, and will be donated to 7th on Sale,
the fashion industry's fundraising initiative for HIV and AIDS organizations.
They'll go on sale Nov. 15 at
www.7thonSale.eBay.com.
MAX AZRIA
A woman's lingerie is not supposed to be seen by the outside world. Apparently,
Max Azria thinks that's a waste of often feminine, delicate garments.
Azria turned a slew of lingerie looks into springtime outfits for his runway
show held Friday, with an emphasis on dainty slip dresses and silky charmeuse
fabric. In the audience were Nicole Richie, Molly Sims and Carrie Underwood.
Azria and his wife Lubov, who co-designs this more upscale collection than their
BCBG line, also favored the subtle earth-tone palette, with grays, taupes,
creams and blacks, adding blush and rose as accents.
There were a few outfits, though, that risked looking a little too much like
loungewear to be worn outside. Hammered satin blouses and cropped pants with
camisoles underneath come to mind.
Revealed: UK fur imports at record levels,
'IoS' investigation shows
Top designers and celebrities
defy the anti-cruelty lobby
Published: 26 November 2006
The Independent on Sunday
By Jonathan Owen and Marie Woolf
Record numbers of Britons are buying real fur,
overturning decades of campaigning by activists who say substitutes should be
worn instead.
Sales of fur clothing have hit £500m for the first time, up 30 per cent on two
years ago, with £40m of new fur products being imported every year.
To the fury of the anti-cruelty lobby, the championing of real fur by
supermodels and top designers is sending sales soaring, with, say protesters,
young animals being clubbed and shot by hunters as a result.
The fashion designer Stella McCartney last night told The Independent on Sunday:
"The continuing use of fur is a real problem in the fashion industry, and there
is an issue with people assuming that fur trim is fake when most of it is real."
More than a decade after top models posed in placards with "I'd rather go naked
than wear fur", new figures show that sales of fur have risen by 30 per cent in
the past two years.
Figures compiled for the IoS by HM Customs and Revenue show that almost one
million tons of fur are being imported each year - and that the global market
for fur has hit almost £7bn.
Fendi, the luxury retailer, has led the move to "rebrand" fur, selling products
using dyed and shaved fur to make it look more appealing. Other top stores have
followed suit, with designers such as Julien Macdonald, Jean-Paul Gaultier, John
Galliano and Alexander McQueen staging shows with models in real fur.
The British Fur Traders Association said that sales of fur have risen by a third
in two years, while Hockley, a London furrier, is reporting a 45 per cent rise
in business. Concern over the comeback of fur in the UK is so great that the
RSPCA is preparing to mount a major new anti-fur campaign early next year.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals blamed the fashion industry for
fuelling the rise, saying catwalk shows were making fur seem acceptable to the
public. "Fur-bearing animals are forced to endure life in cruel cages and are...
slammed against concrete floors and skinned alive," said a spokesman for the
charity.
Such is the scale of alarm at the rise in fur use that the Government is moving
to ban all imports of harp and hooded seal products into the UK.
This has been prompted by a sharp increase in the past year in the amount of
seal skins imported into Britain. Official Customs figures show that the amount
of seal pelt imports rose from 3.6 tons in 2004 to 4.1 tons last year. In 2004,
the UK imported almost a third of the value of all Canadian seal skins into the
EU. Protests continue over the Canadian seal hunt, where hundreds of thousands
of animals are clubbed or shot each year. Campaigners claim that some seals are
still alive when they are skinned.
We are buying more fur than ever.
Seal skin is
now so popular
that the Government is to ban imports.
The suffering this trade causes to animals
is as great as ever.
So why can't we
do without it?
Jonathan Owen reports
Published: 26 November 2006
The Independent on Sunday
When five of the world's biggest supermodels
posed with an "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" placard in 1994, it was the
high point of the anti-fur campaign. Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford, Christy
Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and Elle Macpherson had achieved celebrity status,
and their influence had others queuing up to join the anti-fur protests. The act
of wearing fur became a social crime and those deemed guilty risked being abused
by strangers in the street.
How things have changed. Naomi, Cindy, Elle and Claudia have returned to
promoting fur, with just Christy remaining true to her word. Fashion is
notoriously fickle and the famous slogan "It takes 40 dumb animals to make a fur
coat... but only one to wear it" is being disregarded by many designers and
models. Britain's fur industry, almost driven out of existence in the 1990s, is
back - and thriving. It has been quietly restyling fur to appeal to a new
generation of customers.
An investigation by The Independent on Sunday has revealed that more than a
thousand tons of fur worth £41m came into Britain last year. The British Fur
Trade Association claims that retail sales of fur have risen by a third in two
years. In London, one furrier, Hockley, is reporting a 45 per cent increase in
business. Global sales of fur reached a record £6.6bn in 2005, according to the
International Fur Trade Federation.
Concern over the comeback is so great that the RSPCA is to mount a major new
anti-fur campaign early next year aimed atfashion-conscious 15- to 30-year-olds.
An RSPCA spokesman said, "There are concerns that people may be starting to buy
fur in ignorance. Although full mink coats may be still ethically out of bounds,
the fur industry is going for trim and trinkets. Most consumers often don't know
what they are buying, and would be horrified if they realised the suffering
involved."
Stella McCartney, in an interview with this newspaper, said, "There's nothing
fashionable about a dead animal that has been cruelly killed just because some
people think it looks cool to wear. The continuing use of fur is still a real
problem in the fashion industry and there is an issue with people out there
assuming that fur trim is fake when most of it is real."
More than 50 million animals will be killed for their fur this year, most of
which will have spent their short lives in miserable conditions on fur farms
before they are killed, sometimes being skinned while still alive.
The World Society for the Protection of Animals has joined the calls for action.
Major General Peter Davies, the charity's director general, is calling for a
boycott of fur, blaming the fashion industry for fuelling a rise in sales "by
flaunting it all over the catwalk".
Yet the "fur fatwa" of the past is no more. High profile designers such as Jean
Paul Gaultier, Prada, and Roberto Cavalli regularly celebrate fur in their
catwalk shows and defy the attentions of animal rights activists. A generation
has grown up without being exposed to the mass-media shock advertising campaigns
that helped launch the anti-fur movement in the Eighties.
Campaigners are concerned that people need to be constantly reminded of the
cruelty involved in fur. But issues like climate change and global poverty have
taken centre stage.
"I think there has been a fall-off in consciousness and fur has crept back
insidiously," said the style commentator Peter York. "Fur trim is just a
texture; it is not a pelt or mass of pelts, and simply does not look like fur."
Mink and fox are being joined by an array of other animals. One of the most
notorious is karakul lambskin, worn by stars such as Keira Knightley, which is
made from the pelt of new-born lambs that are killed days after birth or even
taken from the womb. Growing numbers of seal skins are also being imported and
the Government is so concerned that it is to back a ban on the import of all
sealskin products. This comes just a week after the European Union announced a
ban on dog and cat fur from China, one of the world's biggest fur exporters.
Undercover animal investigator Peter Joseph (his details have been changed) has
visited several mink and fox fur farms in Norway in recent months. He describes
what he found at one mink farm.
"People think of these places as farms, but they are really more like animal
warehouses, where the animals are there for one reason only - to be killed for
their coats.
"In one dimly-lit cage in a corner of the shed was a large mink. I couldn't help
wondering how people who buy fur would react if they could have seen what I did.
This particular animal could barely move. It seemed to have resigned itself to
its fate and just lay there - its eyes swollen from the ammonia fumes from its
urine and faeces and an open wound on its head."
A spokeswoman from the International Fur Trade Federation claims that the
popularity of fur is increasing due to people making up their own minds about
the issue and "reappraising natural, sustainable materials with modern
techniques".
But Mr Joseph is trying to forget his experience of a fur farm. "If I close my
eyes I can still see them there. Walking away from the farm was one of the
hardest things I have ever done."
Additional reporting by Marie Woolf and Sonia Elks
Nicole Richie and the rabbit fur jacket
WHERE AND WHEN: Book signing in New York, 2005
WEARING: Grey rabbit fur jacket
COST: Estimated £1,000
CRUELTY FACTOR: Rabbits are farmed in terrible conditions. A large proportion
are bred and killed purely for the fur and the RSPCA says that people should not
assume that rabbit fur is automatically a by-product of meat. In the wild,
rabbits are roaming social animals that live in burrows. In a cage on a fur farm
they are denied this freedom and are usually killed by having their necks
broken. The use of rabbit fur in costume is first recorded in 13th-century
literature.
Dita Von Teese wears mink
WHERE AND WHEN: Rodeo Drive Walk of Style Awards, Beverly Hills, March 2006
WEARING: Mink cloak
COST: Anything up to £8,000
CRUELTY FACTOR: About 85 per cent of all mink are farmed, something that is
incredibly stressful for these wild animals. They live for just six or seven
months before being killed; common methods include gassing, electrocution or
beating them to death. They are perhaps best known for their dark brown fur,
which turns white at the chin and runs to black at the tips of their tails. It
takes 60 to 80 minks to make a fur coat. Young tend to be born in May. They are
dead by December.
Kate Moss's seal boots
WHERE AND WHEN: Leaving a London restaurant in March 2004
WEARING: Mukluk boots
COST: About £200
CRUELTY FACTOR: Mukluks are a soft boot made of reindeer skin or sealskin and
worn by Inuit. The sealskin is taken from seals that are clubbed to death at two
weeks old.
Sophie Dahl chooses mink and white fox
WHERE AND WHEN: Fragrance Foundation Awards, New York, April 2005
WEARING: White mink coat, fox fur collar
COST: Estimated £7,000
CRUELTY FACTOR: Millions of mink and fox endure terrible conditions in fur
farms, where they live their short lives in cages so small that they can barely
turn around. White foxes that are caught from the wild in steel-jaw traps are in
so much pain that some bite off their limbs in order to escape. Many die
horrible deaths before the trapper arrives to kill them. Those on farms are
gassed or killed by electrocution: electrodes are clamped in the mouth and the
rectum.
Keira Knightley opts for karakul lambskin
WHERE AND WHEN: British Independent Film Awards in London, 2005
WEARING: Black karakul lambskin coat
COST: Between £3,000 and £6,000
CRUELTY FACTOR: One of the cruellest forms of fur, according to animal
welfarists. Undercover investigations have documented how heavily pregnant ewes
are killed and their unborn lambs removed for their coats. Newborn lambs are
routinely killed after a few days, before their velvet-smooth coats have had a
chance to uncurl. The fur is also called Persian lamb, astrakhan and broadtail.
It is also used to make high-end hats, carpets and rugs.
