An Accessory of Death

I read Maia's post titled "Wearing Death," which describes Victorian jewelry that incorporated animals. The examples she gives are gold earrings that have hummingbird heads in the center of them (Fig. 1). At first I found the earrings both amusing and unsettling. After few moments I realized that while Victorian practices seem gaudy to us and too close to death for our comfort zone, we are guilty of the same practice. 

This may not be seen in jewelry or taxidermy, but animal fur and leather are highly used today. For instance, in Eastern Canada where it gets much colder than it does in Victoria, "Canada Goose" jackets (Fig. 2) are very popular. The majority of these jackets have a coyote fur lining around the hood for warmth. While fur is practical in this case, fur can also be used solely as a fashion statement. I thought about my own life and the amount of leather that I am surrounded by. There are couches, car seats, boots, phone cases and many more products that use leather which are common in our daily lives. On top of that, one of my favourite things to collect are old leather-bound antique books. I do not find our modern "accessories of death" (i.e. leather or fur) to be unsettling like the Victorian earrings because I have been socialized that way. Maybe if I had been born in a different time I would be the one wearing those earrings...


(Fig. 1)

 
(Fig. 3)  

P.S. I just wanted to make a disclaimer that I am not supporting the use of fur or leather and I acknowledge that there are ethical concerns surrounding these materials.