Winter is coming in Australia and New Zealand and Alexa Chung has the answer.

All Hail Alexa

A long-time fan of fake fur (and vintage), Alexa Chung is our inspiration for the Southern Hemisphere this year as the temperatures drop.

If you really don’t want to drag out another black wool coat, look at secondhand, retro, vintage and vintage-inspired fake fur.

Faking It

The move to faking it started with Kim Kardashian announcing she had remade all her real fur coats in fakery; the late Queen renounced them altogether.

Search ‘vintage fur coats’ and you’ll find great 1970s bomber jackets along with classic 1960’s long coats that drop to mid-calf.
So is it okay to wear real, if it’s been mothballed? That’s really for you to decide. It’s either you or landfill, correct?

Thrift Fur, as New Yorkers call it, is having a moment. Exotic animal skins have been banned at London Fashion Week. There’s a certain something about black nylon, though.

What to Wear Beneath

Alexa Chung favours Miu Miu chocolate brown faux-fur coats over a beaded black slip.
In fact, she’s been sporting faux coats for years. The slip underneath is no sweat. Literally.
This is thin layer/big layer dressing for winter events and it works.

The Faux Fur Bomber

Try a T-Shirt under a Seventies bomber jacket, with jeans, for simplicity. Same principle.

A Bomber or Flight Jacket is based on old R.A.F. design. It can be called a Letterman Jacket too.

The jacket was born out of the need for pilot protection in freezing cold cockpits during the last war.

In America, Top Gun revived the look (Tom Cruise) and it’s since been picked up by Kanye.
Women wear the bomber with their hands in their pockets and clearly-fake pink or purple (or green) fur in panels, or all over.

Fake Leopardskin

The other great fake is leopardskin.

No matter if your (ethical) choice is rescuing an old 20th century fur from the scrap heap or clearly going faux, this is a timeless winter look – like all vintage.

Polyester, nylon or acrylic fur is a statement by itself, like cruelty-free cosmetics.

It went mainstream when Ralph Lauren began promoting it. In the right designer hands it can either look blatantly synthetic (fun fur, as it’s called) or actually pass for the real thing.

Stella McCartney pioneered label patches reading ‘Fur Free Fur’ (if you find them, they are highly collectable).

Similarly faux fur Prada. When it’s cool outside, it’s cool to fake it.