This is a rough and rude comment and I apologize: I do not want to alienate anyone but I feel very very strongly on this matter. My feeling: I do not wear either (nor do I wear fake fur or >shudder< pleather pants) I do not support the animal and human suffering that all of it entails-regardless if it's in fashion or not.
To me, if you hunt-can look at the animal alive and kill eat, consume it, use it's parts-then you have every right to wear that fur or leather. You have in a sense given respect-one animal to another. If you cannot, then in my opinion you are a hypocrite.
I've seen suffering and it's not worth a fucking handbag. The coats lined with "wolf" fur? A lot of the times it is dogs-people's discarded pets. You can't tell the difference. Think about that. Animals feel pain, imagine getting skinned alive (money saver) and having your still breathing body tossed onto a pile of dead or dying animals just to bleed out. Ever see a cow be strung up for butchering, still aware and struggling in terror? I have-and it isn't ok with me. My mom was hired as a cashier at a small country butcher's shop once and walked in the back to retrieve something only to see the butcher stringing up a dead cow and another live one struggling against it's pen. My mom quit that very second. She said that cow's cry haunted her for a long time and she hasn't eaten or worn a cow again, to this day.
I do not support PETA (just to clarify-one of the most abusive and hypocritical places around with around a 95% murder rate to it's "rescued" animals) I support people who make conscious decisions, regardless what way they lean ethically. My fiance isn't a vegetarian, he fishes every year-but he also kills and cleans them. I do not have an issue with anyone who does what they do respectfully. This may be a small planet, but we are the beings who mutated it and over populated it for our own means. I will not support that. Any animals who come into my life as pets get spayed/nuetered. It's about being responsible. This planet isn't mine to abuse, it belongs to us all.
We have so many organic options available. I rarely buy brand new things, when I do-it's built to last. I enjoy thrift stores, making my own cruelty-free style than following a fad. If it's something I want bad enough, then I make the best purchasing decision available or I make it myself from pre-owned materials. Learning to sew was an awesome thing. No sweat shop produced shit, nothing worn that is the product of any beings suffering. Period.
Again, If I have offended I do truly apologize. I just can't look into my cats eyes, see the love and the go off and disregard another life form in the same breath.