With the rise in popularity of fur or faux fur in the fashion industry, a significant danger is that consumers are being fooled into believing that the fur trim on budget fashion items is fake rather than genuine.
According to World Animal Net, the use of cheap genuine fur in fur trim has become extremely prevalent. They advise that up to ninety percent of fur from foxes that are killed on fur farms is not used as coats but as fur trim on coats that may seem to inexpensive to be geniune.
Fur has become so cheap that in many cases it has replaced the faux fur;this explains partly how the fur trade has managed to survive the dramatic drop in sales of fur coats.
"Many people are not aware that their fur collar, boot trim or glove linings are made of real fur which is obtained through the same atrocious process as fur coats," say the experts at World Animal Net. "Sales people in their ignorance often claim that the fur must be fake if it is that cheap."
Faux Fur vs Genuine Fur: Touch Test
Feel the difference by rolling the hairs between finger and thumb...
- Genuine Fur: Feels smooth and soft, easily rolls between the fingers.
- Faux Fur: Feels coarse
Faux Fur vs Genuine Fur: Visual Test
Look at collars with longhaired fur and blow on the hairs so they divide...
- Genuine Fur: Is usually made up of several layers of thin, almost curly hairs which form a dense under-wool, through which the longer hairs stick out. The base is leather.
- Faux Fur: Is simpler in structure, individual hairs are often the same length and even in colour.
Faux Fur vs Genuine Fur: Pinch Test
Pinch with a pin through the base...
- Genuine Fur: The leather resists, and the pin is hard to push through.
- Faux Fur: Pin easily goes through the base.
Faux Fur vs Genuine Fur: Burn Test
Carefully pull a few hairs from the fur and hold them to a flame...
- Genuine Fur: Singes like a human hair and smells similar.
- Faux Fur: Melts like plastic and smells like burnt plastic. Forms small plastics balls at the ends that feel hard between finger and thumb.
