We’re 90 percent sure the answer is ‘No.’ But let’s back up.

On the Thursday before inauguration weekend, a PETA press release announced:

Under a sign reading, “Free Fur Coats,” PETA will hand out dozens of fur coats — donated by those who have moved on to cruelty-free garments — to homeless people in Washington, D.C.’s Farragut Square.

Advertising the fact that people have donated furs to PETA was presumably one of the goals here. But the main message is that wearing fur is only okay if one is homeless.

Giving fur coats away to homeless people in D.C. on one of the coldest days of the year struck us as a great idea. However, we can’t tell you how hard it was/is to wrap our heads around the fact that this is PETA. Doesn’t PETA think that fur on anyone perpetuates the notion that it’s okay to wear? How would they know the recipients didn’t take the coat straight to the pawn shop? Was PETA taking advantage of others’ hardship for its own publicity?

There were just too many questions. So we went to check it out. Story after the jump.

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This week we talked a lot about how newly-moneyed consumers from China, Russia, and the Middle East are going to be in the greatest position of power to dictate trends going forward at the very top of the fashion food chain (most notably, fur and couture). It turns out that holds true on the other end of the price-point spectrum as well.

Yesterday, during an earnings report, Sweden-based H&M and Spain’s Mango reported healthy growth in 2008 — and world-conquering plans for expansion this year. H&M is moving forward with efforts to open 225 new stores worldwide and add 7,000 jobs. For its part, Mango plans to open another 150 stores.

Says WWD:

The openings continue aggressive expansion plans by all the major fast-fashion retailers, from Zara to Uniqlo. With competition in more mature American and European markets stiffening and economies in recession, fast fashion is looking to expand in new growth markets around the world, from China to the Middle East.

With the continued sluggish economy, it almost seems like the era of Western-driven fashion trends is coming to a close.

When people are up in arms about a fashion ad, an airbrushed or anorexic-looking model usually tends to be the grievance. But what about crew of naked, bizarre orgy-embraced skinny models?

Back in the ’90s, Calvin Klein earned its status as the textbook example of advertising and body image with its Kate Moss “heroin chic” campaign. But a new CK Jeans commercial that launched today on its website has been deemed to obscene for American television — even late-night – according to WWD.

Steven Meisel shot the new Jeans commercial, which has a grainy quality and looks like it was produced in an old basement, with male and female models — including Anna Selezneva, Anna Jagodzinska and Natasha Poly — who aren’t wearing much more than their Calvins and are writhing around all over each other.

In Europe, of course, the ad is no big deal. People in Germany, Italy, France, and Spain will see the unedited raciness this spring.

After the wave of controversy over the fall 2008 “orgy-inspired” Agent Provocateur campaign, we can’t help but wonder if high-fashion orgies will be the next generation of objectionable ads.

Suddenly those see-through runway looks don’t seem so risque after all.

(You can watch the forbidden commercial, unedited, on the WWD website. As you might expect, it is NSFW.)

Above, the good old days: Calvin Klein jeans ad from a September 1979 issue of British Vogue (which long-time readers may recognize from this article from Issue 2).

DoSomething.org has teamed up with teen casual wear retailer Aeropostale to round up jeans for homeless teenagers. The campaign, which runs until February 22, is trying to collect 200,000 pairs of jeans this year to beat last year’s record of 125,000.

Chace Crawford, who stars in Gossip Girl, filmed a PSA to support the effort among youths and encourage them to conduct clothing drives in their schools.

To donate, bring in any brand of gently worn jeans to any Aeropostale store in the U.S. or Canada. Aeropostale and DoSomething.org will ensure the jeans are donated to one of the 500 youth shelters across North America that have been selected as partners. As an incentive, Aeropostale is offering an additional 25 percent off coupon for those who donate.

David Wolfe, a respected fashion forecaster with the Doneger Group, predicts that trends in women’s fashion will slow to the “turtle pace” typical to men’s wear.

The next year of sobriety will sweep the nation clean of conspicuous consumption, ostentatious glitz, and “fashion flash points” that are out almost as soon as they are in, argued Wolfe as he presented his spring 2010 “big picture” forecasts to the industry.

“Spring 2010 will be the light at the end of the runway, when fashion comes to terms with our new reality,” said Wolfe, adding he expects “shake ups, shake downs and shake outs” in the meantime — though not on par with the Great Depression when 14 percent of retailers closed their doors. “Like the housing bubble, the luxury market was artificially inflated by aspirational customers who are now gone. When recovery comes, we’ll be a very different nation. People are changing their lifestyles, even if they have the same incomes.”

Wolfe predicts women’s wear will adopt men’s wear’s “turtle pace” that is “about refreshing and replenishing, rather than evolution every season.” 

The exception? The green fashion movement. Mr. Wolfe says demand for environmentally friendly products will only grow, and in keeping with the natural aesthetic, floral prints, the color green, wooden accessories, and animal skins will be popular with designers and consumers alike.

Opinions about these bold and colorful possibilities?

Shown here: Christian Dior pre-fall 2009 green dress.

Paul H. Rubin, a professor of economics and law at Emory University, wrote an opinion piece in Forbes this week about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, which was passed in reaction to last year’s news of the lead content in toys made in China. (First, read up here and here on the background of the new safety regulations concerning chemical content in children’s clothes.)

Mr. Rubin writes that the law will decimate the used clothing and handmade segments of the children’s fashion industry, and claims the law was passed hastily and without critical thought:

A mentality focused on engineering and health sciences, one that is concerned with the question of whether some product could be harmful, drives the agency. Less attention is paid to evidence about whether or not a product has actually been harmful, and even less to whether or not it pays to correct the harm.

Although I have not done an analysis, I cannot believe that the slight risk of lead from used sweaters or toys would justify shutting down at least two industries–handmade children’s products and thrift shops for children’s goods. Society will also lose the value of the used goods that could be sold.

Although the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission now says that thrift stores will be given a reprieve, there is still no word about whether handmade goods will be spared the rod.

The only thing we like better than a little designer ingenuity is a hot new bag to ward off the winter blahs. Isn’t it great when you can find both in the same place?

Canadian designer Hoakon/Helga makes her purses using high-quality leather jackets she finds at vintage and thrift shops. Although she relies on an ever-evolving number of designs — such as the Monarda hobo or the Ravine bow satchel — every bag is one of a kind because of the repurposed leather.

She also does custom orders if you see a bag you like in her gallery. Now the hardest decision is upon us: picking just one.

Hoakon/Helga Ravine Bag, $85 at Etsy.com.

The fur industry around the world is getting hit hard by the recession as consumer spending continues to slump and animal-rights activists make their voices heard. According to the most recent data from a Canadian trade group, fur exports from Canada were down to $381-million in 2007 (from $450-million in 2006). 

Paul Madger, of the family-owned Madger Furs shop in Toronto, says vintage furs are selling better than new ones as people bring in heirlooms for restyling:

“The plus side is that more people are interested in the used furs, which we’re very big at. We’re hurting on the high end, but we’re picking up a lot on the good used coats,” the senior Magder says.

As with other Januarys, this one is slow, “because the bills have come in,” his son says. But December, 2008, was actually better than December, 2007. The Magders guess that the bitter winter is driving some to fur. They are also seeing more clients from emerging markets such as China, Russia and the Middle East.

The part about the industry’s newest clients echoes what the Parisian fashion houses are saying about the couture market. It seems likely that consumers from those areas of the world will have a more influential voice in fashion ethics in the years to come.

According to Forbes, retailer woes are certain to continue as a survey shows that one out of every three women plans to not buy any clothes in 2009. (Last year, that figure was only 4 percent.)

Lane Bryant, the Gap, and Zales are expected to close stores nationwide in the coming months as consumer debt continues to pile up from bygone days of shopping with abandon:

Those days are over, probably for a long time. While accelerating unemployment will only last so long, consumers’ debt loads and credit access don’t figure to recover to pre-party levels for quite awhile.

“I don’t think we will live the same way for 10 years,” says Howard Davidowitz, chairman of New York-based retail consultant and investment bank Davidowitz & Associates. “People are so scared they’re starting to save.”

One woman’s credit-card debt is another woman’s recessionista shopping spree.

So E.S. readers, are you in that one-third?

The Paris fashion houses that produce couture are predicting growth in 2009, separating them from the rest of the retail sector. Chanel, Christian Dior, and Giorgio Armani Privé all reported encouraging sales and new clients, most of whom are coming from Japan, China, and the Middle East.

What’s particularly interesting is that Chanel and Armani have always tended to be more conservative, but now Dior — headed by John Galliano, whose name has for years been synonymous with extreme fashion — is definitely heading back in that direction.

“We had double-digit growth and the second half of the year was good,” echoed Sidney Toledano, president and chief executive officer at Christian Dior. “I believe that in this world you still have people looking for the exceptional — extraordinary materials and exceptional designs, custom-made by an atelier in Paris.”

Toledano said Dior couturier John Galliano, who in the past had staged fantastical shows with extreme silhouettes, has since 2007 returned to “really interpreting the Dior codes and the Dior cuts, and this has been impacting the sales.”

Classic styles may not make as big a statement as, say, a Somali pirate getup, but they also stretch even the big bucks further.