Lanvin Python & Mongolian Fur Pumps
posted by: brianka in Fall 2010 Shoes, High heels, Platforms, Pumps, Trend Alert, Winter 2010 on September 5th, 2010
No surprise to any of our regular readers is the rather obvious fact that I like shoes. This is beyond the actual ‘shoes I’d like to wear’ and into the land of ‘If I had an unlimited budget I’d consider opening a shoe-museum’. There are simply too many love-them or hate-them… yet always interesting-to-look-at shoes being made for me to own (let alone wear) even a fraction of the styles that pique my interest.
On a more serious note, on researching the source of the Mongolian fur trim of these shoes (most likely lambswool from nomadic Mongolian flocks) I encountered several articles devoted to last year’s tragic Mongolian winter; a winter so severe that close to 8 million herd animals died. This has left many nomadic herders struggling to survive with those few herd animals that remain. Selling their goat cashmere, lambswool and other herd skins is especially important to those now barely surviving this devastating event. This is a case where designer items are
Lanvin python and Mongolian fur pumps $1990 via Net-a-porter
more likely to be directly sourced from smaller communities and suppliers. I certainly hope that is the case with much of the Mongolian fur that is coming onto the market right now. It might seem like the fur fringe is just a silly luxury. But, sometimes, these small details that we experience as ‘mere luxuries’ can have a real and positive trickle-down impact in other areas of the world.
I’d also like to ask that if any of our readers encounter more information on this topic – from which fashion houses are using/supporting micro-economies to companies that may be taking undue advantage of the situation to share it with us here. I love to know more about the background events that may be occurring underneath the more obvious surface trends that we see at retail – this type of information can really help those of us who want to arm ourselves with the knowledge to make informed and ethical consumer decisions.
Related information:
Treehugger.com, February 12, 2010
Mother Nature Network, March 30, 2010
UN Report on Mongolian Winter, January 22, 2010
Donation Site (Cambridge Mongolia Donation Appeal)
Pastoral Nomadism of Mongolia (General Information)
3 Comments
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September 14, 2010 at 9:52 pm, Lanvin in pitone e mongolia said:
[...] Via Shoeblog [...]
September 09, 2010 at 9:54 pm, Suzanne aka Punk Gla said:
Valentin! I knew these would appeal to you! If you happen to wear a 5-6 so if you tire of your shoes, please keep me in mind – our tastes are so similar!
Galligator, about 15 years ago (or so) it was discovered that the average Eastern diet consumes a great deal of mongolian lamb. It was also discovered that the fur was being destroyed by bonfire. This is one case where the fashion industry came together to utilise the fur rather have have it destroyed and wasted not to mention creating even moroe. I'm sure there are many more cases of the same type of waste that could be put to good use — we need creative brains oto come up with more ideas to help the planet by not creating more waste!
September 05, 2010 at 12:49 am, Valentina said:
I have already received these from net-a-porter, I LOVE LOVE LOVE them, I spent an hour just walking around the house in them with my workout clothing on (that was a fabulous look). The SECOND the temperature dips below 50 degrees I will be prancing around in these, they are sick-hot (and a teeny bit narrow in the toe, but who cares?) Probably over-the-top for most?