All posts tagged: fur

Terminology: What is chinchilla

I’m not much for fur, but chinchilla has always fascinated me. I think it is the name. It’s just so darn cute! It sounds like a name Disney would invent for an animal. I’m never really thought about what a chinchilla actually was until recently. When I did begin to wonder, I had to look it up. The chinchilla is a rodent from South America. It looks like this: OH.MY.GOODNESS Squeee! Cute overload. It’s a fat little mouse with extra big ears and a squirrel tail! Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww! I think they were invented by Disney! Really, could you get any cuter if you tried? I think we need to see more cuteness: Awwwwwwwwwww! Of course, in fashion they aren’t concerned with how gosh darn cute the fat little mice with big ears and fluffy squirrel tails are. They are concerned with how soft and dense the fur is, because they kill and skin those gosh darn cute fat little big-eared, fluffy-tailed mice for it. Natural chinchilla fur is pale grey with a dark streak running along …

Terminology: What is astrakhan?

Published by The Dreamstress

Astrakhan (also spelled astrachan) is, properly speaking, the tightly curled fleece of the fetal or newborn karakul (also spelled caracul) lamb. Less accurately, it can also refer to the fleece of fetal or newborn lambs from other species, or a knitted or woven fabric that imitates the looped surface. Astrakhan has a distinctive tight, whorled, loopy surface with a slight sheen. The younger the lamb, the tighter and shinier the loops. True astrakhan comes in a range of colours from pale golden yellow to black, though black is the most desirable. This may be the part where you are thinking “fetal or…wait, what!?!”. Yes, the most desirable form of astrakhan is that from a lamb 15-30 days away from being born, and it is sourced by killing both the ewe and the unborn lamb. Horrific. There are other ways to source astrakhan: either by waiting for the lamb to be born, or by utilizing the pelts of lambs that are born dead (beware that some companies selling lamb-ewe fetal kill astrakhan describe it as ‘stillborn’ …

Meat, fur, feathers & me

Published by The Dreamstress

This post was sparked in part by a reader question, and in part by tomorrow’s terminology post (which means, in a way, you are getting a response from the future.). It also interlocks with Steph’s post on taste, and judging (or not judging) other people by their clothes. First, the reader question: A reader asks “How do you feel about fur? Would you use it if doing so was historically accurate? Could you consider a reproduction with faux fur historically accurate?” As a bit of background to this, I have a very specific and defined attitude towards animals and meat. I will eat local unfarmed fish as long as it’s not a species that has been identified as being at-risk (bluefin tuna, orange roughies etc.). I eat wild game in areas where the wild game is an introduced species (so deer & goat in NZ & Hawaii). I don’t eat commercial meat, even the ethically farmed stuff. I just don’t like the idea of something existing merely to die. I don’t eat pork. The thought …