Walk Softly – Fashion or Folly?

by Geoffrey Carpentier

From time immemorial, humans have looked to nature to adorn themselves, perhaps to just offset the mundane parts of their difficult lives, or more likely to make themselves more attractive to their partners. Beads made from seed pods or berries, flowers, shells, bits of bone or feathers to adorn the hair and small pieces of wood were shaped into appealing decorative items. This trend has continued to the present day and will assuredly persist for eons. In the beginning, this wasn’t particularly harmful to the general wildlife community or the local environment, simply because the scale was small and the users remote from each other.

As time went by, the appetite of the consumer increased, and fashion became a ‘thing’, where one competed with others to look fancier and more opulent than those with whom they associated. This led to some devastating outcomes – witness the trend to use bird feathers as a fashion accessory. Many birds, such as egrets, parrots, ostriches, peacocks and Birds-of-Paradise were collected by the hundreds of thousands to create flamboyant hats, earrings and broaches. Whales were hunted to make use of their baleen for skirt hoops or umbrellas. And, of course, mammalian teeth, paws and fur were harvested to show off the wealth of the owner in the name of fashion. Who can forget the outcry when seals, off the east coast of Canada, were clubbed to death to ensure a continuous supply of fur for the fashion industry. It wasn’t just about adornment; it represented a huge business opportunity for the forward thinkers. For example, egret plumes sold for $32 an ounce in 1886, more than twice the price of gold! By the last quarter of the 20th century, however, many of these trends went out of favour as our environmental conscience rose.

Today, as the modern fashion industry faces intense scrutiny over its environmental impact, a growing movement of designers is embracing this newfound environmental conscience, while still incorporating fur, flowers, feathers, shells, seeds, and wood into contemporary fashion designs. But exploiting the natural environment is no longer the preferred option nor the necessary one, as we can now turn to synthetic materials - but there are problems with this option as well.

Let’s take fur for example. Historically, the fur trade was largely responsible for Canada's emergence into the world market. Moving from natural furs to faux fur meant wild things were no longer harvested. Still, the new materials are environmentally unfriendly and persist in landfills for centuries, so what do we do? To minimize impacts,, today's designers, naturalists, and ethical designers frequently turn to vintage pieces, upcycled garments, or responsibly and sustainably sourced materials as an alternative.

Feathers, long a part of our fashion-focused culture, can likewise be cultivated but not to the degree to which plants can. Birds can be raised for food or show, and the feathers, if attractive, repurposed. But as one would expect, the supply is only infrequently available and is limited. Again, synthetics can offer a more viable alternative, with the proviso they are generally generated with the use of petroleum products.

So where can we turn our fashion eye, acknowledging we must preserve nature at the same time? We can look to abundant materials such as seashells found along our beaches, which can be fashioned into all manner of jewelry and accessories. They can persist in the millions, and except for some micronutrients, are removed from the local environment and cause little immediate harm. But bear in mind large-scale harvesting can destroy the character of a beach, and the organisms which live there will undoubtedly be negatively impacted.

Ultimately, adopting natural items as fashion accessories demands a deep commitment to ethical sourcing and respect for environmental regulations, but it can be done if carefully thought through.

Geoff Carpentier is a published author, expedition guide and environmental consultant. Visit Geoff on-line on LinkedIn and Facebook.