As we wrote last month, fur was huge on the runways of New York Fashion Week, but apparently the trend is more significant than we realized. The New York Times is reporting that 2010 marks the first year that a majority of the designers presenting collections used fur.

The question of “why?” is complex to answer. Programs like Origin Assured have resonated with consumers, reassuring them that their fur was humanely farmed.

And on the design side, a lot has changed. Some holdouts have always used fur (like Oscar de la Renta), but some PETA converts of the ’90s have since changed their minds (like Ralph Lauren) and young designers are increasingly accepting of the product (like Irina Shabayeva of Project Runway fame, whose F/W 2010 coat is pictured here).

The NYT reports:

Several of those designers are too young to remember the vicious battles over fur in the 1980s and ’90s, when a PETA member tossed a dead raccoon onto the plate of Anna Wintour while she was dining at the Four Seasons; another tossed a tofu cream pie in Mr. de la Renta’s face. But some remain sheepish on the subject. Thakoon Panichgul, for example, showed a coat in his fall collection with strips of fox bursting from the sleeves, but he declined to be interviewed for this article because of the controversy.

Others said they felt confident using fur after examining the chain of production and finding it humane.

“You see so much leather and shearling being used this season, and no one is complaining about that,” [designer Alexa] Adams said. “I don’t see the difference between using shearling and using fur.”

We know you have opinions. Share them in the comments section below.

Here’s a subject we haven’t considered before.

Susie Orbach, the foremost British psychologist on issues of body image and author of the book Fat Is A Feminist Issue, has accused lingerie companies of misleading the public by hiring models who have had breast augmentations to pose in their goods:

“I have plenty of clinical evidence to show that surgically enhanced models create a situation in which young women and girls feel inadequate,” Ms Orbach said. “They begin to think about how they can get their breasts to look like the ones that they see on ads. They feel dispirited because even though they know these images don’t necessarily relate to ‘natural’ bodies, they appear to be the norm and they feel left out.”

This reminds us of the controversy over using false eyelashes in mascara commercials, an issue over which a Rimmel ad was banned in 2007. But let’s open it up to the commenters: Do you feel inadequate when looking at lingerie ads featuring models who have surgically enhanced their bustlines?

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has for years been behind a retailer boycott of Australian wool, charging that the practice of mulesing is inhumane. (Which, as we’ve written before, is far from a settled matter.)

But now, the activist group is taking it a step further and alleging that all wool is unethical and should not be bought:

In its latest campaign, “Have a heart: don’t buy wool”, PETA claims “sheep and other animals used for their wool are turned into living yarn factories and are denied everything that is natural and important to them”.

The online campaign encourages buyers to instead seek out cotton, polyester or synthetic fabrics.

This is seemingly at odds with other campaigns that champion the sustainable benefits of wool (like the one spearheaded by Prince Charles). Moreover, polyester and certain other synthetic fabrics have a whole host of ethical problems associated with their manufacturing and biodegradability.

So where do you stand, E.S. readers? Do you wear wool? How about polyester?

Great news! Levi Strauss & Co. and U.K. charity Forum for the Future have jointly launched a new project to urge the fashion industry to collaborate on sustainable development with an eye to the future.

The Fashion Futures project includes a sustainability report and the production of four videos that envision what the world will be like in 2025 (focusing on the role the fashion industry plays in helping bring that about).

Says Peter Madden, CEO of Forum for the Future:

“The global fashion industry generates a trillion dollars a year. What we wear – and how it’s made and sold – can have a huge positive impact on our society and environment. This report describes how fashion’s future could be greener.”

You can watch the “Slow Is Beautiful” video above, and the other three mini-movies — titled “Community Couture,” “Techno-Chic,” and “Patchwork Planet” — can be viewed on the Fashion Futures website.

As promised yesterday, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at the New York Fashion Week coverage and came to an obvious conclusion: Fur is big again for Fall/Winter 2010.

Michael Kors in particular used a ton of fur in his new collection (pictured here), for both men and women.

And a protégé from Kors’s own Project Runway, Season 6 winner Irina Shabayeva’s debut collection made fox fur the centerpiece of several designs. “From her opening look, a camel cashmere pheasant-print coat with crystal fox collar, the tone was set,” reports the Fur Industry Council of America in Women’s Wear Daily.

With so much fur conspicuously used by the most buzzworthy designers, it begs the question: Has PETA’s influence dimmed over the years due to its increasingly outrageous stunts? Is the era of fur-shunning over for good?

“After 10 seasons covering New York Fashion Week, I’ve learned that no matter how often People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protest outside the tents at Bryant Park, every year designers will still incorporate fur into their collections. This week, Marc Jacobs, Thakoon, Carolina Herrera, and a handful of other designers used fur in abundance. It was like a barnyard with goat, mink, fox, beaver, raccoon, and even muskrat seen on the catwalk.”

– Boston Globe columnist Christopher Muther’s observations of New York Fashion Week, which concludes tomorrow. More commentary regarding fur on the runway to come tomorrow.

Pictured above: from Marc Jacobs’s F/W 2010 show on February 15.

American figure skater Johnny Weir has reported that he won’t back down to demands that he lose his costume trimmed with fox fur for his Olympics routine, even though he’s been the subject of death threats in recent weeks.

In his trademark flamboyant style, Weir invited extremists to bring it on:

“All these crazy fur people definitely changed my mind. Security wise, staying in a hotel would be very difficult,” Weir told reporters after turning up for an 0800 news conference sporting a striking red and white silk scarf looped around his neck and with his nails manicured. “There have been threats against me. Threats of harming me personally and I didn’t want to get hurt. So I decided to stay in the village and my team has made it as comfortable as possible. …

“There was a lot of attention put on a tiny piece of fur,” said the 25-year-old, the 2008 world bronze medallist. “While I do understand anti-fur activists views about fur and the fur industry, they aren’t part of my life.

“One thing that is horrible is when somebody pushes a belief on you like a religion. I was definitely threatened and felt very threatened. People are nuts.

“I’m an easy person to pick on because I’m very open I like fur and I like things that come from dead animals. It’s easy put your cause against an athlete going to the Olympic Games, it’s good free publicity for these activists.

“I’m not a huge politician that gets these threats all the time. I mean I’m a figure skater. It’s not normal to receive a threat that really threatens your life. It’s a very scary thing.”

Mr. Weir’s opinions may be considered outlandish to some, but we have to agree with him that threatening violence — especially given the Olympics’ history of lethal security breaches — is not the right way to confront him on this issue.

And this is actually the second fur controversy regarding the Vancouver Olympics. Read up on the first one here.

What can I say: Valentine’s Day brings out the feminist in me. The holiday is irksome in so many ways, and so I was thrilled to find a kindred spirit in the blogger behind GlossedOver.com and her genius dismantling of InStyle magazine’s “Look Better Naked” issue.

The main feature recommends a variety of get-sexy-quick suggestions that are so over the top, you can’t help but laugh at the absurdity. (Nevermind the hypocrisy of juxtaposing “Love Your Shape!” with “Look Better Naked!” on the cover.)

According to InStyle editors, if you want to successfully seduce the man in your life, by Sunday you must: lose water weight through the mysterious workings of detoxifying salts; spend $850 on a lariat necklace that will make your back look sexier; paint your ceiling pink to cast your naked form in a more flattering, mood-enhancing light. Note that none of these things will make you feel sexy unless you’ve got the self-esteem to back it up.

But the blogger sums it up better than I can:

Of course, the article also covers the usual territory of depilation, exfoliation, and cosmetic trickery to hide anytraces of humanity blemishes and bruises. But unless you’re disrobing for a sculptor who’ll immortalize your every detail in marble, isn’t this overkill? There’s probably a 3,000-word essay here about treating women like objects and the deleterious effects of porn and how the media tries to define our sexuality, but I’ll just leave it at this:

If you’re naked and your partner dares frown at your white ceiling or a stray stretch mark, your relationship is way beyond InStyle’s help. Also, you’re probably dating my ex-boyfriend.

An Oregon man who set himself on fire in protest of a Portland fur boutique has died, police are saying.

Witnesses described the scene as pretty gruesome:

[A witness] said that after setting himself ablaze, the man tried to enter Nicholas Ungar Furs  at 1137 S.W. Yamhill St. He said the man also had something in his hands, but could not see what it was.

Cheema said a police officer was at the stoplight at Southwest 12th Street and Yamhill Street when the incident occurred and immediately responded.

By the time firefighters arrived, two police officers and bystanders had already put out the flames, Simmons said.

A short time later, charred materials remained on the ground around the building, including a shoe, but most were unidentifiable. Yellow police tape surrounded the scene.

The fur store has been the site of frequent animal-rights protests in the past and Cheema said the man was yelling something about the world ending and animals dying.

“People always come every day protesting,” Cheema said. “They’ve done some extreme things.”

Our condolences to his family, but this kind of violent protest has got to stop. No matter what you believe about the ethics of fur or other animal products, destroying a human life does not further the cause.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) is set to release a tee-shirt to raise money for earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti.

Designed by Peter Arnell and manufactured by contemporary brand Theory, the CFDA tee titled “Hope Help Heal Haiti” will donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the Bush Clinton Haiti Fund.

CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg says of the effort:

“The tragedy in Haiti has affected everyone and most of us individually have given money for relief … However, I think it is now important to send a message and create a channel for funding from fashion as an industry.”

You can buy the $25 tee starting February 12 from any retailer whose designer is a member of the CFDA or from CFDA.com.