Dying to Get Dressed Up

REALITY CHECK

Because a manufacturer selects only the most suitable part of a hide or pelt, a heavy cost in individual lives is required to produce each and every garment. To make a small fur jacket, an entire family of mink are bred, confined, electrocuted, and skinned. To make a snakeskin handbag, 2–3 mature pythons are hunted, stuffed into sacks, nailed to trees, and skinned alive.

Leather: Slaughter 8 calves to make this leather coat. Fur: Skin 36 cats for this fur-lined wool coat. Feathers: Pluck 6 ostriches to trim this robe. Silk: Boil 11,000 silkworms to make this velvet robe. Wool: Torment 7 lambs to make this pair of slacks.