From food to fashion, animals provide all kinds of products that we use on a daily basis. But instead of keeping animals in cages and sending them to slaughterhouses, Pamela Paquin thinks there’s a better way to produce certain animal based products.
Paquin is the founder of Petite Mort Fur. The company creates couture fashion products with fur from roadkill that Paquin finds throughout the country.
Roadkill and fashion aren’t two concepts that you’d normally associate with one another. But for Paquin, who was raised to appreciate all that animals give us, they’re a natural fit. She told CNN:
“Growing up I was always encouraged and told that if you’re going to eat meat, if you’re going to sit at this table and have this meal then you have to understand that those animals outside the door are where it’s coming from and you have to participate in that. And that’s carried on through my life.”
In sixth grade, Paquin didn’t even flinch when a teacher asked students to pick up roadkill for dissection. And she encountered some surprised and skeptical reactions when she first decided to apply that same concept to creating fur based products. But she also got a lot of compliments on the items she created.
Though most of Petite Mort Fur’s products are priced a bit over $1,000, it’s still cheaper than a lot of other couture fur products. And Paquin is also sure to stock at least a few lower priced items, because she wants the products to be accessible to as many people as possible.
But overall, the company’s goal is to reduce the amount of animals being kept in cages just to be skinned for their pelts. It’s an admirable goal that plenty of animal loving consumers are likely to appreciate.
Time will tell how much they’re actually willing to pay for that appreciation. And the company’s success will also likely depend on people being able to get over that initial shock of being asked to don fur that was once roadkill.
But if Paquin is able to effectively get the word out about her company’s goals and maybe appeal to those consumers who wouldn’t otherwise buy real fur due to ethical reasons, Petite Mort Fur could really take off.
Image: Petite Mort Fur
Aira Bongco
I always like how businesses can be creative with their products and services especially when they can take something and turn it into something beautiful or at least sellable.
Petite Mort Fur
Thank you Aria!
Much of 2013-14 was on the ground research and prototyping to see if the pelts were usable and could match up to standard furs. What really excites me is a large majority of the worlds fur is mink – a very tiny animal – most American wildlife is much larger and thus there is more fur per life lost. Given beaver (a significant causualty on our roads in New England) can look much like mink and is much larger – I am confident it is only a matter of scaling and continuing to tap the hearts of consumers – who I’ve found so very sensible and excited about this – current fur lovers and those who’ve never worn fur previously because of their issues with cages and intentional slaughter. The skepticism has actually been almost non existent. Happy Fall from Boston!