Introduction
The fashion industry is one of the most prominent and economically significant sectors of the modern system of industrialization or it can be replicated by the word that is modernization. The rise of capitalism brought an intense kind of progression in the conventional techniques and procedures of dress making. The rise in capitalism on the global level contributed to the development of industries and technologies.
From many of those industries, the fashion industry began to grow and it has become an immensely important industry with a highly competitive and revenue generating market in the modern times (Easey, 2009). However, there is a significantly high level of versatility which can be found in the domain of the fashion industry.
Out of many trends of this industry, one of the most significant, popular and royal trends is the utilization of fur in fashion clothing which has become part of a major debate circling the fashion industry and designers (Burrow, 2011). The use of fur has always remained a significantly critical issue in the domain of the fashion industry.
However, the market of the fashion industry has generated a huge amount of revenue from the utilization of fur in fashion clothing. Where there is a great popularity of the utilization of fur due to its royalty, there is also a developed thought which disapproves the utilization of fur and pronounced it as an immoral act. In order to settle that particular reason the fashion industry has introduced faux fur as a replication of real fur.
This introduction of faux fur into the fashion industry settled the steam to great extent. However, the utilization of real fur was never outdated because of its immense popularity. In the modern times, the utilization of fur is still considered to be a very attractive fashion entity which is often exhibited as the symbol of prestige and style. In the rival stance of the two ideologies, the fashion industry is still utilizing real fur, and faux fur has still proven to be a successful material in the market.
Perhaps, this paper is aimed at analyzing and explicating the statement that faux fur and real fur are combined in the modern market which is resulting in larger revenues and success for the utility of fur in the fashion industry. The school of thought which proposes the immorality of wearing fur as a fashion apparel will also be discussed in the context of a combination of faux fur and real fur by the fashion industry.
Popularity of Fur in the Fashion Industry
Fur is highly regarded as a remarkable entity in the fashion industry. The utilization of real fur is very expensive which has caused to denote its image as a luxury material. In today’s world, many supermodels, superstars, singers and other style icons demonstrate the use of fur to be a significant part of today’s fashion. Recent winter collections of numerous fashion designers have incorporated fur which exhibit its popularity and success in the fashion industry of the today’s world (Mintel, 2005).
From the rise of capitalism, the fashion industry started to be formulated in which several kinds of fashion wear were introduced. Numerous materials were utilized to add more value to the clothing. Fur was one of those materials which was introduced for women as a symbol for elites. Since then the utility of real fur has become very popular in the fashion industry (Summers & Belleau 2006).
It is not only because of its popularity and favoritism which has caused it to be one of the most sought after materials in the fashion industry. In connection to its popularity, the fashion industry has generated significant amount of revenues from the use of this fashion material in the global market place. It is a prominent factor of the persistence of real fur in the modern fashion industry (Crotty, 2013).
Market works on the principle of demand and supply which means that the trending material in the market will generate greater revenue than a less popular substance. Similarly, in the market relating to the fashion industry, the demand of fur is critical; however, the cost of this luxurious material generates a problem of its critical demand. The critical demand of real fur in the market is associated with an ideology share by a group of believers which will be discussed in the next section (Easey, 2009).
Immorality in Wearing Fur
Despite of the fact that the utilization of real fur in fashion wear is an immensely popular trend which has proved to be a successful revenue generator in the past, but there is an extremely grave fact which is intrinsically associated with the utility of real fur. This fact is that animals with fur are being killed to collect fur to be utilized in fashion apparels.
This fact has developed a thought in several minds against the fashion industry that the utility of fur for fashion wear is immoral. It is because it involves useless killings of some precious species on this planet (Emberley, 1998). The genesis of this thought can be derived from the ideology that dominantly exists in many societies that meat should not be eaten because it is collected from animals and they are simply killed in order to extract meat (Hoffman, 2013).
These killings only for the sake of meat or fur are pronounced to be immoral for individuals who carry this ideology. Due to this reason, the fashion industry had faced numerous encounters with intense critique in the domain of the utility of fur for fashion apparel. This massive critique to the fashion industry affected the market and incentives which were involved in the utility of fur for fashion (Choi et al., 1996).
This is the reason why there is a critical market demand for the utilization of fur in the fashion industry. In modern times, the market related to the fashion industry has been congealed to a major extent regarding fur as a fashion wear. This congealment has overcome the significant critique of morality which is intrinsically associated with the utility of fur (Hoffman, 2013).
The marketing technique which helped the fashion industry to resolve the problem in the utility of real fur was the introduction of fake fur which will be discussed in the next heading. Besides, the use of fur can be viewed in the context of Generation X and Y. As far as Generation X is concerned, the fashion industry witnessed significant changes and went through a number of innovative experiences.
Following this, fur was also featured in fashion shows as a regular point of attraction, and fashion designers were able to gain significant returns. The fashion designers were able to signify fur as a symbol of status and modernity through fur made coats, hats and mufflers. On the other hand, Generation Y also evidenced significant developments in fur made clothes and other accessories along with boots made of fur, which were introduced in Generation Y’s era.
It is Generation Y’s era which took fur clothing beyond few fashion destinations like London, New York, Milan, Paris and Madrid to other parts of the world. Fur’s use also increased remarkably when the baby boomers era emerged after the Second World War. Apart from its use in fashion clothing, fur was used in military dresses to keep soldiers warm (Belton & Clinton 2011).
Faux Fur in the Fashion Industry
The introduction of faux fur in the fashion industry revolutionized the circumstances in which the worth of fur was significantly decreasing by each passing moment. This idea of faux fur was basically adopted and delivered to tackle the criticism of immorality which had affected the market of fashion industry to a major extent. In the making of fake fur, there was not even single specie which had to suffer with the fate of death.
The concept of faux fur inspired the people again to start the utilization of their favorite fashion wear which again elevated the rate of market in the fashion industry (Rastogi, 2010). Faux fur is actually a replica of real fur which is made up of raw materials and chemicals. It is a product which is not made up of animals’ fur and thus they are not killed.
So, it becomes a material like a normal dress with all looks of luxury and royalty as the real fur which is conventionally present in the fashion industry. Faux fur is comparatively less expensive and royal, but it resembles to the real fur in a complete sense. Due to the price of faux fur, the market boost of faux fur is has increased significantly over the years (British Fur Trade, 2013).
Faux fur did not only attracted normal and neutral individuals to use this highly popular fashion wear, but also captivated the attention of critics towards the utilization of faux fur. The introduction of faux fur into the fashion industry and its market achieved great growth rates making it as a successful substitute for the conventional fashion wear real fur.
In modern times, there are many fashion collections in which faux fur is being used and many of the fashion icons who are against the utilization of real fur are adopting clothing made of faux fur because it does not involve any immoral behavior against animals (Crotty, 2013). These are the reasons for the immense popularity and success of faux fur in the modern fashion industry.
This industry is also gaining strength as a number of front line fashion designers like Armani, Next and Zara are using it. It has been estimated that only the faux fur made mufflers comprise 32% of the market share. Some of the most famous faux fur clothing lines are Sprit Hoods, Madden Girl Bootie, Grey Reuched Zippered, and Hooded Parka.
The clothing made of fur is suitable for wearing with tight jeans, oversized sweaters, giving a laid back and furnished image, to get on a rough and ragged look along with prettiness (Turner 2011). The fact that synthetic fur is increasingly being considered as a part of prestigious and furnished glamorous pieces of clothing is further supported by the statistics generated by this segment of the fashion market.
A Person for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is an American not-for-profit organization, which has its sole agenda of safeguarding animal rights. PETA is of the view that animals are not for humans to consume for their selfish purposes and humans should not use animals for eating, wearing, experimenting and for any entertainment purposes.
It was due to PETA’s untiring efforts that the American government realized the seriousness of the rise in use of animal fur for manufacturing warm clothes and made an amendment in the relevant laws and regulations. This amendment then led to the country’s first Animal Welfare Act (PETA 2013).
The Success of Duo for Higher Revenues
The modern market of fashion industry has regained its significantly losing charm in the face of faux fur. However, there are many of the individuals who do eat meat and them find nothing to be immoral about it. Similarly, there are several individuals who find it perfectly moral to wear a real fur in any form of fashion. For those individuals, faux fur has assisted in a significant way by which the losing stature of real fur in the fashion industry and market has been regained (Crotty, 2013).
Now there are both kinds of fur in the market which are serving and entertaining the consumers to a major extent. It can be known by the high percentage of revenues which are being made in the recent past in the market of fashion industry regarding fur. There are innumerous fashion designers in the contemporary fashion industry who utilize fur in their fashion collections, especially in their winter collections, which illuminates the popularity and success of fur in the fashion industry and market.
The real fur targets the conventional audience who can be said as the elite consumers on the other hand the remaining consumers who believe that the utilization of the real fur is immoral are targeted by the faux fur. By this marketing tactic, the fur has developed strong roots in the market of fashion industry and it has and it still is proved to be successful in the revenue generation for the fashion industry (Easey, 2009).
The question that do the faux fur and the real fur work hand in hand in making each other grow in today’s fashion industry? The answer for this question is obvious after the discussion which is explicated in the above headings. This obvious answer is yes. This duo which is the kinds of fur in the fashion industry is immensely successful in market. In addition, both of these furs complement each other in the domain of marketing and consumer behavior (Easey, 2009).
Future Research about Fur in Fashion
The question regarding the use of fur in fashion industry certainly does contain the depth on which an appropriate research can be done. There are several questions which will be addressed in the futuristic research. These questions involves the question regarding the consumption of faux fur because the customer will definitely be willing to buy the best in the lowest possible price and faux fur is not the real stuff.
The possible answer to this is the ideology of morality which has been discussed in detail. Regarding this ideology, the question which will be addressed in the research will incorporate the individuals’ assessments regarding their beliefs and likeliness for the use of fur.
The assessment will involve the history and the upbringing of the individuals which is highly associated with likes and dislikes on an individual. This proposes that the research which will be conducted will be aligned with the qualitative research methodology.
Conclusion
It has been discussed in this paper that the stature of fur in the fashion industry is significantly successful in the domain of market. However, there is a significant critique which has created a downfall for the elevated graph of fur as fashion apparel in the global market.
This critique consists of morality and emotions in which the consumers of fur as fashion apparel are pronounced as the immoral individuals and the action of utilizing fur in the fashion industry is said to be immoral act. Because it involves the killings of innocent animals and it also cause the extinction of some precious species which is considerably an immoral act.
Despite of the fact that this critique was proved to be a significant cause that decreased the stature of fur in the market of fashion industry. Then the arrival of faux fur in market controlled the falling image of fur in the fashion industry and market and it helped to increase the stature of fur. However, the competitiveness of faux fur and the real fur is still not verified on certain grounds.
There is a qualitative research required in the domain of this topic in which the general opinions of the people regarding fur have to be analyzed in the form of interviews. The research questions must also include the analysis of global market for the fashion industry in addition to the information which has been provided by this paper. The statistical research on the primary level will be of key importance for the dissertation.
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