Some years ago I visited a vintage clothing shop which had an entire long wall devoted to old furs. There was everything from 1930s fox fur scarves (complete with heads and tails) to floor-sweeping mink evening capes. It made me think of how values change, and how the status symbols of one era turn into the embarrassments of another. Who, in the 21st century, would want to parade around in dead animal pelts?
Which brings me to this image. Women in the 1960s were still wearing furs as a sign of wealth and status, but their value was being nibbled away on the one side by cheaper, artificial furs that looked like the Real Thing, and on the other by blatantly artificial "fun" furs worn by the young and with-it. As for the ethical side of things, the anti-fur movement was still nascent at this point. It first started making the news as protests against sealing in the 1970s, and coalesced in around 1980 as a movement against all kinds of fashionable fur-wearing.
This, incidentally was a real red fox fur, lining a coat made of mixed wool and nylon, and available from Spiegel for $US179 (that would be around $1642 now).
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