You know my feelings about real fur by now, and if you’ve somehow missed that you can read about it here.

I have to remind myself though that the past was a very different place, where wearing fur was aspirational and fashionable and the ethics of it weren’t questioned at all. One thing I still struggle to understand though is how the strange fashion of the fox-fur stole came about.

It seems a very strange (if not gruesome) thing to want to drape a dead fox around your shoulders, especially with the head, tail and stiff dangling legs still attached. Is it the vintage equivalent of all those wooly hats with ears on them we saw last winter? Were they just seen as ‘a bit of fun’, or was it the height of vintage sophistication?

I was going to Google the history of the fox fur, but I’m too reluctant to come across the inevitable horrible skinned-fox photos posted everywhere by animal rights groups. I’m anti-fur too, but it doesn’t mean I want to look at horrible photos of bloody foxes. Can anyone answer the question for me?

Anyway, I thought  you might enjoy this strange gallery of vintage women wearing their fox furs. Some look comical, some glamorous and some downright strange. What do you think?

If you’d like to join in the debate about whether it’s right to wear vintage fur, you can here.

[7 photos]
Strange vintage trends: fox fur wraps

This fox looks a little like Basil Brush (to me anyway!) c. 1910

StrangeStrange vintage trends: fox fur wraps vintage trends: fox fur wraps

The ‘shy’ fox, hiding his face away from the camera, c. 1920

Strange vintage trends: fox fur wraps

Mrs Raymond Belmont, c. 1915. Surely this would have been nicer without the head and legs still being attached?

Strange vintage trends: fox fur wraps

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart wearing a fox fur stole

Strange vintage trends: fox fur wraps

A United Charities worker wearing a glassy-eyed fox fur selling a Rose Day button to a man, c. 1930s

Strange vintage trends: fox fur wraps

Queen Elizabeth (mother of Elizabeth II) wearing a fox fur in 1927

Strange vintage trends: fox fur wraps

The very glamourous Thornton family aboard the Cunard liner Lusitania, 1914

 

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