Getting Intimate With Skin

By jacqueline Davis Moranti

This season I have been noticing many retailers and designers with clothes made of animal skin. The use of animal skin in fashion has been around for ages, literally. From the dawn of time, man started out wearing animal pelt, it was the only way to clothe yourself back then. If you think about it, fashion has gone barbaric, by making fur coats, crocodile loafers, python skirts, rabbit fur hats and the list goes on!

In my honest opinion, I'm not a fan of wearing animal skin. I know you might be thinking, shoes are made of leather that comes from cows. While yes, that is true, cows are one of the few animals that are farmed for their skin. Since cows are farmed and grown locally, we don't have to worry about an extinction of the beloved black and white, dairy producer.

These are actual photos of my reptiles.

Most of you might not know this little tidbit about me, my BF and I are proud owners of pythons, how many.... I won't say! Our pythons are the sweetest and most intelligent animals we've come to know, sorry Chibi! My fascination with pythons grew from the predisposition of fear that many of us have with anything that slithers and flickers a forked tongue. It also helps that I have a BF that knows everything there is to know about them.

Designers such as Gucci, Prada, Donna Karan, Roberto Cavalli, and Yves Saint Laurent have fashioned snakeskin into boots, belts, bags and much more. They're encouraging illegal trades from south Asia and animal cruelty. Did you know that once captured, the snakes are skinned alive? Reptiles are known for being able to survive many hardships, you can imagine the suffering they can withstand. They are left to die, which an last from 2-3 days... such troopers. Alot of the companies that allow this act of cruelty to happen claim that the snakes are farmed, which in fact is not true. The care for snakes cost a lot and when plucked out of their natural habitat, they do really poor and are susceptible of sicknesses. 

Wearing 100% animal skin, just isn't my thing, I just can not see myself condoning that practice to look good and be a part of the "in" crowd. Faux fur/skin all the way. These animals need their skin more than we do, why should we continue barbaric actions for the sake of fashion in the 21st century? Don't we have the technology to recreate the look and feel of these animal skins? I'm not going to lie, I still love a lot of these designers and retailers' work, I just won't support the purchase of their animal skinned products. 

Readers, let me know how you feel about this?

                                                                                                                          Xoxo,
                                                                                                                              Jacqui