Fashion Update: Nothing furtive

WHILE supermodels are queueing up to work for Peta, America's radical anti-fur group (in spite of the rumours that some supers own fur coats), Yasmeen Ghauri has been signed up by the opposition. She wears mink, sable and fox fur in a new campaign for the US fur industry, a decision perhaps based on the fact that she comes from frozen Canada and thus takes a different view about fur. But her decision goes against the grain. At the couture shows last week, even Valentino, who is from Italy, where fur has never gone out of fashion, used fake.

Not that the real thing has disappeared from the haute couture catwalk, which too often resembles the build up to David Bailey's famous commercial for Lynx. The only consolation for those of us who dislike the stuff is that the same pelts are used over and over again. The Independent's fur expert swears he recognises one particular fox pelt, re-dyed, every season.

(Photograph omitted)