Chanel announces the cessation of the “cool” of the precious leather and fur industry?

Another luxury brand, Chanel, announced that it will stop using precious leather in its designs.

Since 1994, Calvin Klein became the first fashion brand to join the International Zero Fur Alliance, hundreds of fashion brands have announced the abandonment of fur.

For example, in recent years, the old luxury brand Gucci, which used the young and fashionable design to “turn over”, announced that it will join the International Zero Fur Alliance in 2017, and promised not to use all animal fur from the spring and summer of 2018.

The reasons why brands have abandoned the use of fur are simple.

As the president of Chanel's fashion department said, it is now increasingly difficult to purchase animal fur that meets both brand quality standards and ethical standards.

In addition, the awakening of animal protection awareness has also led more and more consumers to try to stay away from this “cruel” beauty.

Cruel luxury and redemption

For a long time, animal fur has been loved by designers and consumers as a natural material, and its warm, high-quality texture is very popular among wealthy consumers.

Because luxury brands often represent expensive and rare, in order to give products higher pricing and enhance brand positioning, precious fur has become the brand of choice.

Compared to ordinary leather bags, bags made of special leather can often be sold several times or even tens of times.

The use of animal fur has also become an indispensable part of many luxury brand designs. Stars are competing to buy and drive the consumption of fur products in the entire market.

It is also the strong demand of the brand to provide a fertile soil for the development of the fur industry.

According to incomplete statistics, there are currently 110,000 companies and more than one million people in the world involved in fur-related industries. As early as 2013, global fur sales reached $35.8 billion.

It is undeniable that the development of the fur industry has brought new employment opportunities and economic benefits.

For China, in 2011-2016, the sales revenue of China's fur industry has increased year by year. In 2011, the fur industry achieved sales revenue of 56.982 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.1%; in 2016, the industry achieved sales revenue of 95.726 billion yuan, reaching the peak of industry revenue in recent years.

However, due to the slow development of the international economy and the sluggish demand, the domestic fur industry has experienced overcapacity and oversupply. In 2017, the Chinese fur industry achieved sales revenue of 93.606 billion yuan, which was lower than the market demand in 2016.

In terms of profit, in 2011, China's fur industry completed a total profit of 4.687 billion yuan, a growth rate of 31.0%; in 2015, the industry realized a total profit of 8.357 billion yuan; in 2017, the fur industry completed a total profit of 8.321 billion yuan, an increase of 12.1 compared with 2016. %, the growth rate is slowing down.

Is the fur business really not working?

Even though the fur industry has made a significant contribution to the economy, some cities in Europe and the United States still choose to ban the sale of new fur products, such as Amsterdam and San Francisco.

Starting January 1, 2019, retailers selling new fur apparel in San Francisco will face a fine of $500/piece, the higher the amount.

According to San Francisco Chamber of Commerce estimates, San Francisco's fur sales are at least $40 million a year. The San Francisco Economic Analysis Office estimated 2012 fur sales of about $11 million.

This legislation is undoubtedly a great thing for local fur traders.

At the same time, with the expansion of anti-natural fur opinions, the western fur market has declined since 2012. According to the International Fur Association, in 2015, sales in several fur markets in Germany, Russia and the United States did not exceed $1.5 billion.

Even so, some industry insiders said that although the abandonment of fur is huge, the reality has not touched the root.

In fact, the development of the fur market is still booming, and the age of the consumer groups has a downward trend.

According to the statistics of the International Fur Association, the brand of fur used in the autumn and winter 2018 is still as high as 64%.

The real problem of fake fur

As the organizations like the International Zero Fur Alliance call for, fur has an alternative to fashion and beauty.

Chanel's "fake fur" is an example. The fake fur winds that Chanel and other big brands have whipped up have refreshed many new fashion people's new understanding of traditional fur. It is not cruel and at the same time quite fashionable.

However, fake fur brings new problems.

At the level of sustainable development, the International Fur Association says that artificial fur is far more harmful to the environment than we think.

Faux fur is usually made of chemical products such as nylon or polyester fiber, and it takes decades to degrade. Some fashion people who support natural fur say that natural fur is an environmentally friendly material that can be degraded within one month. The main ingredients are water, protein, fat and inorganic salts. The production process is also mainly carried out on farms, with carbon emissions being 20% ​​to 30% less than man-made fibers. Other body parts such as bone meal and fat of leeches are used in areas such as centralized heating and biodiesel production.

In addition, the proper use of natural fur is also about natural balance. The US Vice President of the International Fur Association has said that if we don't use it, the fur is still there. The number of foxes and coyotes in parts of North America is abundant, so as long as the scale of hunting is in line with government standards, it will not affect the survival and continuation of the animal population.

Without manual arrest to reduce the number of these predators, the number of rare animals such as cranes will be reduced.

Wang Yi, chief representative of the International Fur Association in China, added that the recycling of the fur industry is relatively complete. Although the durability of natural fur is generally more than 30 years, there will be a special recycling and transformation department in the professional fur retailing point in Northeast China.

Although the opinions of these people in the industry make sense, it has to be acknowledged that behind the fur industry, it is the interests that drive the inevitable inhuman treatment of animals.