apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This store is about 5 blocks from my house, they make really, really beautiful stuff. Updated Canadiana.

Re-purposed does not equal guilt free any more than consumption can equal thrift. Being crafted from something already made does not obviate feelings of guilt, for me; additionally, I'm always conflicted about non-necessary consumer goods being celebrated as green/consumption conscious. "Green" should be about being aware not just of what we consume but also how much in general. I think the repurposing of one's own heirlooms is green, but buying a new set of pillows recrafted from someone else's old stole is just consumption.

Or maybe I'm just cranky today.

I mean..."being aware of not just...but also...." The cranky has infiltrated my grammar sector.

pooh pooh on you - recycled or not it's still an animal's fur

never

I agree -- fur grosses me out (recycled or otherwise). But I have a leather couch, so maybe I am a hypocrite? No, leather is at least comfortable -- the few fur things that I have felt in my life (My grandma's minks) were not very soft (nothing I would want to put my head on anyway).

Yeah, fur grossing you out but the skin that the fur resides on, not grossing you out?

Unusual.

Also, from an economic standpoint, what does this do? I buy a whole bunch of old furs, recycle them into sweet pillows and sell them. Pretty soon, people can't buy the old jackets, scarves, hats, etc... because I've bought them all and repurposed them, thus creating more demand for fur. Once a demand exists, it will be filled, barring a global ban on fur production, which does not yet exits. Just my $0.02, if it's even worth that.

...so what should happen with all the old furs in people's closets that no one wears anymore (since repurposing is out) ? should it be buried or burned or just thrown in the trash? just wondering...

Repurposing the fur into other things is good. People that wear fur coats would not wear the old grandma coats anyway.

However, I would never wear or buy fur anyway.

Leather is better because we kill cows for food anyway. Has anyone eaten mink?

Apart from all of that, the pillows look a smidge mangy to me.

Leather isn't necessarily a by product. Google the truth about leather if you'd really like to know more about it.

I feel cranky too.

ick.

Nope... still looks like ugly, fuzzy death.

As for repurposing fur: many shelters and animal rescues will take donated furs and use them for abandoned baby animals to cuddle with. I like that option better.

actually i was kind of hoping this was road kill recycling, now that i would buy... skunk, possum, dog, kitty, squirl, etc. how cool would that be.

salty_dogs, a doggy fur rug/throw/pillow would be kind of... really, really disgusting, but i'm down with this kind of recycling (her main site isn't working for me right now.)

i feel like i should have a disclaimer: i don't like fur, but i'm fine with leather. i don't want a fur pillow, but i'm down with a dead cat staring at me from the desk as long as it has wings...

right, it's not mentioned in the article i just linked, but the animals she uses are already dead when she collects them. durr.

OK, so I am not a tree hugging, granola eating, green touting extreemist. I wear leather, use leather upholstery, but I don't believe in fur and I agree with the other posts just because you repurpose it doesn't make it guilt free.

It still places importance on fur and fur products and creates a demand for other fur products whether recycled or not.

Just my 2 cents.

I actually inherited a raccoon coat, and for me it's things like the fact that I almost never have a day that I even CAN wear it that bugs me, and the fact that it costs money to keep in storage and the fact that it's so old and fragile that you really should never sit down in it that bug me.

I think that it's global warming that has given us the kind of very strange climates that make us not really need fur, and so it makes it just a tad easier these days for people to be all smug and superior about not wearing fur. If we really needed them, we'd wear them.

Urban heat sink, but otherwise, Curtis is probably right.

(Global warming proponents say average temperatures have risen under 1 degree Celsius over 100 years, which wouldn't change whether you feel cold in January. Urban heat sinks from having more concrete spreading further, on the other hand, have increased city temperatures quite noticeably within the last 30 years.)

Yuck!

Homer Simpson: Mmmmmmm....mink.

I have an old fifties-style fur coat that I inherited and wear maybe once a year. I never wore it at all until my roomate purchased a nearly-identical faux one (turns out the style was back), and I realized I could pass my real one off as a fake! How the times have changed...

I'm late on this thread, no one will read, but hey, a girl needs to express herself!

I personally love fur, and also live about five blocks from Harricana. I haven't yet bought any fur from her (but she has great jewelery!) but she could help me use one of my grandmother's old coats to make a muff, which would be practical, relieve my mom of the storage of the coat, and give me a savings on the product I design with Mariouche.

Besides, fake fur is way worse that real fur. I take killing a rabbit over producing plastic (hello petrol-based, non-biodegradable, polluting piece of mass-produced short lived trash) fake fur any day.