Meret Oppenheim

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Meret Oppenheim’s Fur Obsession and What It Means For Sustainable Fashion Today

Consumers have long been duped into buying "circular and sustainable" products by industry professionals. They've been promoting their vegan, leather-free, or lab-grown mushroom items, but despite being sustainable, they've raised the rate of consumption, and only those with a lot of money to spend on stylish clothing can afford to buy them!

The phrase "sustainable development" was coined by the Brundtland Commission. This important document states that their environmental challenge is to meet “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” In 2021, fashion pledged to be more sustainable, material innovation surged, and interest in circularity grew through COP 26. As new strategies are developed for the coming year, some of the world's most well-known corporations and top executives are debating end-of-life issues and developing biodiversity programmes, showing a shift in thinking. However, global leaders set flimsy carbon objectives and watered down their final deal, while the fashion industry neglected to fund the necessary effort to reach its own climate commitments. According to Laudes Foundation’s Tucker, the business did not seek to address the larger, underlying issues at hand. After doing my research on sustainability, I was perplexed as to why the fur trade was not addressed in any of the papers I read. The fur trade is an important element of the clothing industry, and I used to think it accounted for a fair share of the unsustainable garment sector. What I discovered, on the other hand, was eye-opening. To begin, there are two types of fur available: wild-sourced and farm-raised. They have a variety of long-term sustainability consequences. Before delving into the two varieties of fur, faux (fake) fur and its environmental ramifications and sustainability, it's necessary to go back to the 1930s, when Meret Oppenheim was a member of Europe's Surrealist scene.

Oppenheim was a German-born Swiss designer who relocated to Paris after World War I broke out. In addition to the training provided at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Oppenheim's presence in Paris enabled her to make contact with prominent avant-garde artists, providing her with a foothold in the art world. In 1933, she befriended famous artists such as Man Ray and André Breton. My Nurse (1936), Spring Feast (1959), and Object are only a few of her significant works. She appeared for Erotique Voilee(1933) and then became Man Ray's muse - as she stood naked behind a large printing-press wheel, her left forearm and hand were smeared in black ink and held to her forehead.

After casually discussing all the commonplace objects she could wrap in fur and make into art with Picasso and Dora Maar at a Parisian café in 1936, Oppenheim chose a cup, china, and teaspoon to cover in Chinese gazelle fur—like the wristband she had fashioned and was wearing at the time. The result, Object, has been included in the Surrealist exhibition, "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism," at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1936), and it became an instant art world sensation. The museum then purchased Object- the first work by a woman it has acquired in the seven years since its creation. When she created it, she was 23 years old, and the piece became so well-known that it weighed down the rest of her vocation.

What drew Oppenheim to use fur to produce a teacup, saucer and spoon- objects otherwise made in ceramic or stainless steel?

Initially, there was a rumour that Meret Oppenheim wanted to present these obviously nonsexual objects as blatantly sexual to theaudience. However, as it turns out, the original inspiration for this artwork came after Oppenheim asked the waiter for more fur for her cooling teacup, in order to keep her tea warm.

This leads us back to the subject of fur and its environmental effects, as well as whether or not faux fur is a better option. The most durable natural materials used for clothes are fur and leather (fur but without hair). The fact that shoe bottoms are constructed of synthetic is not by chance! Customers are interested in caring for fur jackets because they are often expensive. Fur is one of the few types of clothing that may be worn for seasons, if not generations. Fur might come from the wild or from a farm. The sustainability implications of wild fur and farm-raised fur are somewhat different. For North Americans, wild furs are the independent clause, natural, and responsibly sourced garment material. When you buy this, you are assisting in the provision of funds to First World nations and others living in remote and distant locations when alternative work is scarce. Another significant sustainability goal is to help people stay on the land so that they can monitor industrial activity and raise the alarm if nature is threatened. However, farm-raised fur (mink and fox are the most prevalent fur-bearers) can thrive in areas where the soil seems to be too poor or the climate is too harsh for most other crops. This might account for up to 50% of all bioenergy that would otherwise end up in the ocean in extreme cases. They're raised on small, community farms that benefit rural areas by providing jobs. Carnivores, otters, and foxes are fed scraps from our own agricultural production, such as cattle, chicken, trout, and other meat animals that we don't eat. Because the hairs must be protected in fur dressing instead of leather tanning, comparably moderate chemicals are used when the hairs are charred off. Unlike other clothing materials, furs are prized for their natural colours, which reduce the need for bleaching and dyeing.

But, instead of using real fur, why not utilise artificial fur and fully eliminate the fur rearing practice?

The majority of fake fur and other synthetics used as fur substitutes are made from crude oil, which is a finite resource. Every stage of the production of petroleum-based synthetic substances is linked to pollution, from the extraction of raw material through harmful emissions during high-temperature biochemical processes to the disposal of unwanted garments. Fake furs and other petroleum-based synthetic fabrics do not decompose as quickly as real fur.

So, what are luxury brands and fast fashion brands doing to become more sustainable with the use of fur products?

The industry is divided in its opinions about faux fur and while some have shifted from real fur to faux fur in the name of being sustainable, other brands are not on the same page about the use of faux fur.

Gucci, Versace, Michael Kors, and Donna Karan are just a handful of the fashion houses that have ditched the fur in the previous six months. Last year, YNAP stopped selling fur due to consumer criticism, and editor-in-chief Laura Brown issued a statement for the May issue of InStyle explaining why she doesn't feature fur for the issue, a policy she's maintained since she joined in 2016. The conversation over fur in the industry has taken a distinctly 2018 turn, focusing not just on wildlife conservation but also on environmental conservation and whether wearing fur from animals raised for their fur still fits with today's meta customer's lifestyle.Other fur industry groups, on the contrary, claim that faux fur is the less sustainable alternative because it is mostly comprised of acrylic, a synthetic material produced from an unreplenishable commodity that takes aeons to degenerate in a landfill.

“Petroleum-based faux fur products are the complete antithesis of the concept of responsible environmental conservation," says Keith Kaplan, director of communications at the Fur Information Council of America.

While both sides have plentiful evidence to back their claims on the effectiveness or lack thereof of faux fur and real fur circularly and sustainably, what we as consumers are required to do is distinguish issues of sustainability from ethical and animal welfare concerns. Consumers who are conspicuously opposed to fur and the brands associated with it should avoid the material in the future as well. Others who do not feel so strongly about the matter should continue to ask themselves questions like “How long am I going to wear this garment?”, “ What is the quality of the product I am going to buy?”, “ Who made my garment?”, and the like to become and stay more aware consumers rather than simply being fashion victims!