Vice Magazine piece by Jenni Avins, "Free Range Fur"...

[Joe]

http://www.vice.com/read/free-range-fur-0000151-v19n2

 

Skip to page 6 for a picture of the journalist enjoying her Free-Range Red Fox Vest.

 

Like most journalism about the fur industry during my generation, this could be seen as bordering on anti. But please allow it. I welcome your thoughts -- and I wouldn't dare post this any place else.

 

For those like me without the attentionspan to read the entire thing, here is my favorite excerpt:

 

"Over four days, I apprenticed with Dimitris, slicing around bullet holes and belly scratches, stitching up skins, and stretching them to size. We made a cardboard pattern for a vest and traced it onto four of the skins’ leather sides, setting aside the fifth skin for another project. We cut the lines, sewed the shapes together, and steam-blasted the fur. When it came time to close up the collar, he let me sit at the machine.

 

For days I had watched Dimitris sew the leather together, tucking fur with his thumbs as he went. But when it came time to press my own foot down on the machine’s pedal, I felt the same fearful focus I had with my hand on the knife at Larry’s workshop. Eventually, I pressed, turning the machine’s steel wheels while the needle moved back and forth through the collar.

 

Once the vest was constructed, I went to the fabric store for lining. I couldn’t decide between two flannels: a hunter green that recalled the Pennsylvania woods and a butterscotch-flecked gray that resembled the underlayer of fox fur. I chose the gray and brought it to Maria, the seamstress known, appropriately, as the finisher. She made the lining and, with a dagger-sharp needle, sewed it into the vest by hand. It was finished, except for one old-fashioned final touch.

 

I brought the vest to a monogram shop on 30th Street to have my name embroidered inside. Really, I should have requested a few more: Maria, Dimitris, Marc, Barry, Eric, and Larry. Plus four little red foxes who are keeping me very, very warm this winter. And I love every last one of them for it."

 

ciaociao,

J.

[samurman]

It's a great story, isn't it! It makes a fur vest much more than just a garment she has bought off the rack...

 

I have shared it a few months ago on the Den:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13945

[Worker 11811]

I agree. There is a certain sense of ownership which makes you walk a little taller that you get from making something yourself which you don't get from buying a fur off the rack.