The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man » animal rights

Weathered Belts, Broken Records & South Korea’s Dog Days

joshuakatcher — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:53:25 +0000

• If you like the look of an old, weathered and beat-up leather belt, you've probably been disappointed with the vegan selections thus far. In comes CLIFF belts to the rescue, made from cork. The cork is lightweight, strong, and the belts are reversable. So put a cork in it and go buy one. Eventually, you can even build your own. According to the CLIFF website:

Cork is environmentally preferable to leather as it comes from a lower carbon impact source (tree bark) and does not use animal products in its manufacture (a vegan product). The environmental concerns associated with leather include the energy and carbon intensity of generating animal products and the chemicals used in the leather tanning process that can be damaging to human health and the environment. Cork is a naturally beautiful and greener alternative to leather.

• I feel like a broken record. A new environmental study urges people to eat far less meat and cheese. This one is interesting, though. Unexpectedly, the biggest offender when it comes to GHG emissions is lamb! Lamb is a whopping 50% worse than beef. Damn! What sicko eats a defenseless, cuddly baby, anyway? Macho men, that's who - guys who are tough enough to stand up to a dangerous creature like a lamb! Take that you puffy, fluffy, gentle threat to my manhood.

The deadly creature in question

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released the Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change and Health, a comprehensive study warning Americans that the extreme amounts of meat and cheese we eat take a huge toll on the environment, animal welfare and human health. Meat and dairy products require more energy and resources to produce, and generate more toxic waste and pollution than equivalent amounts of potatoes, rice, beans and other plant-based foods. According to the EWG, if everyone in the U.S. chose vegetarian foods over meat or cheese for just one day a week, the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road per year.

• Every year, two million homeless or captured South Korean dogs are butchered and eaten. They are often electrocuted, strangled, or bludgeoned to death and are then skinned, chopped up, and boiled. The cruelty and suffering endured by these dogs is unimaginable. Even though the country's Animal Protection Law, which was passed in 1991, considers dogs to be "domestic pets, officials often turn a blind eye and allow this to continue . Click here to find out more and help.

A dog rescued in 2010 from South Korea's meat trade - In Defense of Animals

What the Flock, Steven Tyler? The Aesthetic Irrationality of Feather Hair Extensions

joshuakatcher — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:54:59 +0000

Steven Tyler's hair is not just a rat's nest - it's a bird's nest too. Steven's stylist, Stephanie Pohl, didn't start the trend of bonding rooster feathers to human hair, but the attention that the American Idol host has received for his clucking curls, rooster ringlets, or poultry pelo is resulting an enormous demand for these feathers, worldwide. According to an InStyle feature on Tyler's hair, in addition to the feather, Stephanie also mentions a "raccoon tail" she uses in Steven's hair and says, “Every few weeks I change out the feathers and bond new ones into his hair. The feathers stay in until I remove them.” In a strange twist, fly-fisherman who typically use these feathers as lures, are suffering from a sudden rise in demand outside of the fishing world. Good for fish, bad for roosters who are typically killed and tossed in the trash after the feathers are "harvested". On a deeper level, the recent obsession among rock-stars, hipsters and fashionistas with indigenous and native people's aesthetics in general - from hair extensions and jewelry made from feathers to Navajo prints, fur, shearling, and fox-tail key-chains to full on feather headdresses - speaks of a large-scale desire to commune with nature and animals. People want to embrace the aesthetic of being wild, free, a nature warrior, and one with wild nature. The intention of this trend is good - after all, we did evolve over millions of years in nature with animals, but in a modern consumer culture, where horrible production processes are hidden and obscured by advertising and sleek PR, the relationship we have to the birds whose feathers are ripped out couldn't be further from one that honors them or represents any legitimate connection to wild nature. It is a contradiction. I would go as far as saying that this aesthetic appropriation isn't just a lie, but because of its insincerity or ability to live up to what it claims to represent (communion with nature), it is an incredibly perverted appropriation of traditional native and indigenous people's aesthetics. It does to animals exactly the opposite of what it intends to visually represent: The Audubon Society was started because of the harm caused to birds used for hats in the Millinery trade, sometimes leading to extinction - but Audubon does not seem interested in issues regarding domesticated birds, even through the cruel trend mirrors their own inception. "There something that's worse than extinction for these animals and that's endless proliferation," said Karen Davis of UPC (United Poultry Concerns). The roosters used for these saddle-feathers have been bred over generations to develop long, colorful feathers. According to Jenny Brown of the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary, the feather plucking process is incredibly painful, and certain feathers, called "blood- feathers", will bleed when plucked. And according to Global Animal:

"Whiting Farms in western Colorado is the world’s largest producer of fly tying feathers. There, the roosters are given only a year to live while their saddle feathers grow as long as possible. (Research varies, but when they aren’t killed for their plumage, roosters can naturally live to be 10-15 years old.) Once the feathers are deemed satisfactory, the rooster is slaughtered, and his feathers plucked. His lifeless body is then thrown out for compost; Thomas Whiting, the company founder (via the Orange County Register), claims that, ”They aren’t good for anything else.” The Whiting Farms website boasts that “over 125,000 total birds (were) harvested in 2000.”"

According to TimesUnion.com,

... they used to go for $50 per saddle, now the price is up to an astounding $500!" Fisherman simply can't compete. According to an article on eccorazi.com, It’s gotten so out of hand that at least one farm in Western Colorado is now killing up to 1,500 roosters per week just for their backside “saddle” feathers. Here is a portion of a piece in the Seattle Times where they explain that the animals usually do not survive the plucking process: "At Whiting Farms Inc., in western Colorado, one of the world’s largest producers of fly tying feathers, the roosters live about a year while their saddle feathers — the ones on the bird’s backside and the most popular for hair extensions — grow as long as possible. Then the animal is euthanized.” At this time, I cannot not find their definition of “euthanized”...

The demand for these feather is out of control, and fishing store like caddisflyshop.com are cashing in, infuriating fisherman and animal advocates alike. This image from their blog, earlier this year, shows a recent delivery of the feathers, and the writer says:

Deal with it folks, we fly tyers are a dot on the international consumer market for feathers. The days of easy access to dyed blue grizzly saddles, dyed purple grizzly saddles, and dyed anything grizzly saddles could be over for several years.

Whenever an evil, like animal cruelty, is redefined as an aesthetic object (in this case, the feather hair extension) its moral qualities vanish. The pretty feather (an isolated aesthetic) is seen as a good, not an evil. According to philosopher Lars Svendsen, this is called aesthetic irrationality. The fashion industry (as well as the culinary industry) is saturated with aesthetic irrationality, where "textiles" that are far removed from production processes are justified based only on their perceived "good" as pleasurable and beautiful objects with an empty history that is filled in by marketing and advertising campaigns that lie to make profits.

INTERVIEW: Fabrice Penot of Le Labo

joshuakatcher — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:02:24 +0000

by Joshua Katcher The sophisticated olfactory genius of Le Labo continues to impress most nostrils that come across it. In addition to their most recent writeup in the May issue of W, Le Labo has received international acclaim and garnered a cult following of obsessed aesthetes. From their stores in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Amsterdam and every other major city you can think of, to Barney's and Colette, to their exclusive line for Anthropologie - the world of Le Labo fragrances is full of intrigue and desire; it is an art, a science, an obsession. I am reminded of the plot from Tom Robbin's Jitterbug Perfume where two of the main characters are questing for the mysterious secret ingredient to a 300-year-old fragrance that is believed to posses magical properties. And there is something magical about this brand. People are mad about Le Labo - and they aren't ashamed to drench themselves in the stuff, and fill their home with their candles, myself included. All of their perfumes are unisex; Rose 31 and Santal 33 are rituals to my day - and forgetting to spray some on often feels like I've left something crucial about myself at home. All of Le Labo's perfumes are 100% vegan - as are the founders Fabrice Penot and Eddie Roschi (all "musk" and other ingredients are synthesized) - two men that are changing the fragrance industry through their commitment to esthetic olfactology, the environment, and animals. (On a side note - I will be carrying the entire line of Le Labo on BraveGentleMan.com, and rumor has it that an exclusive fragrance for Brave GentleMan is in development. Shh..) I had a chance to interview Fabrice recently, and this was our conversation: Discerning Brute: What is it about fragrances, perfumes, odors, and smell that you love so much? Fabrice Penot: I am not sure... I think I like to express myself through perfume creation because there is something pretty magical by creating an emotion in people through something unseen. DB: What is your favorite bit of history about perfume, and how does that influence your work? FP: There are so many, but the one that pops into my mind since I guess we'll talk about animal products is the story of maybe the most mythical ingredient in fine perfumery which is "ambergris". Ambergris comes from the sperm whale - it smells of a magical thing that you can't really define, and you find yourself between disgust and attraction. There is a fecal part for sure, but there is also a soft, musky, very white part that is addictive. In a nustshell, this ingredient can be found on sea shores, as it is the result of the sperm whale's vomit (looks like a black stone, with the weight of a sponge). The magic happens while the floating "stone" travels on the ocean, being washed by the water, baked by the sun, and eventually ends on the sand near the coast, adding the marine and musky smell to the repulsive original smell of the rejection. Knowing that this has been used for decades in fine perfumery and that it was one of its most precious elements was always fascinating to me as a young perfume student. Even though you did not hurt the animal to produce this, (you actually don't even see him or her), nowadays the natural ambergris as been replaced by a synthetic version for perfumery use and Eddie, my creative partner, and I are using a lot in almost each one of our creations. Dirty musky notes are part of the secret of every sensual dry-down at Le Labo. DB: What is Le Labo, and why is it different from other brands? FP: The dirty musky note! And many other things, too - but I guess the more important one is the intention behind everything we do: we want to make the life of our clients more beautiful through our craft, perfume creation (and do no harm while doing so). Of course, there is a cult around our creations for what they are and we are proud of it, but I think at one point, people don't only buy what you do, they buy why you do it, and that would explain to me why our clients are so hooked with our creations. DB: Tell me about your relationship with animals and how that plays into your business? FP: I don't know how to answer that. I guess my relationship with animals changed when I understood my belief in and hope for global peace between humans was kind of useless because there was something about this humanity that was rotten in the first place - that mankind was just a piece of the puzzle, and that of course, there will be no peace between humans as long as they will not respect any kind of life on this planet. I understood you couldn't believe in the power of non violence and close your eyes to the violence created by your own life style, eating habits, shopping habits or even creation habits on other living things. I think the quote from Tolstoi was kind of a "a-hah" moment for me at that point: "As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields "... And since then, I never looked at an animal the same way. I understood simply that I do not want to hurt anyone. I need peace and harmony for the world and I am hoping to start here, from my home, my family, my creations, my office, my business. So I became vegan a few seconds after I realized that. My girlfriend and I decided to jump together and all became very natural. Our children have been raised vegan. My friend and business partner Eddie is now vegan and deeply committed with me to change the habits of the perfume industry with the few animal ingredients still used, So I feel like the happiness and the beauty in my life comes from the coherence of everything around. DB: Is there a code of ethics that is followed at Le Labo concerning people, animals, and the environment? What is it and how to you make sure it is followed? FP: Well, not everyone in the company is vegan but i can tell you everyone cares. Not only because the owners both are, but also because when they live in the environment we built, they can feel the logic behind it. Everyone has a high level of compassion in our team, and there is no need to recall an ethic code or anything... we are a small company and you can tell when everyone is working with the same quality of intention. The only thing we do is we challenge our suppliers (or even new partners) to commit to cruelty-free ingredients and try to inspire perfumers by using synthetics over naturals for civette and castoreum. DB: What is something people need to know about the modern fragrance industry? FP: The good news is the industry is being more and more concerned about environment and cruelty issues.Mainly because of the pressure of consumers and I am glad that works. I am sure some big beauty corporations continue to test their cosmetic products (not perfumes necessarily, but creams for example) on animals secretly, but they know they are taking big risks with the public if this becomes known. I think in a near future this will not exist anymore - one big scandal would be enough to scare them all. We need a Wikileak on this to solve it. Unfortunately, I have no access to these infos, but what I can tell you is that in the world of perfumery, there are very few animal products left to be used by the perfumers. To my knowledge there is only 2 left: castoreum (which is a by product of beaver) and civette (from a little wild cat that is trapped to extract that smell). There are synthetics available for these 2 products and we are an active force to raise awareness in perfume houses for the use of synthetics over naturals for these ingredients. DB: How do people respond to different smells, and how does that influence your recipes? FP: A perfume is very personal. The sense of smell is very linked to your memories. You can love a fig smell because it relates to a happy memory in your childhood and in the same time I can hate it because my first girlfriend dumped me under a fig tree...you can't create a perfume anticipating people's reaction to it, you just try to reach a certain kind of esthetic, beauty, surprise, elegance, soul with the shape of it. Then, if it is well done, it will connect with the person at a deep emotional level and be worth existing. Or not... DB: Talk about your favorite aspect of the science and the chemistry involved in our attraction to certain smells. FP: I am not so much on the science part i have to say. Eddie my partner is a scientist by training (and a poet by choice) so he is more the one who is the expert of that. I am more into the intuitive search of the creation of an emotion. There is actually no science behind that apart from quantum physics maybe, but it is a posteriori, not a priori, meaning after the experience. DB: You also are very good with presentation - from packaging to the store interior design. How did yo develop this? FP: It is just Eddie and I trying to marry our love for industrial design, perfumery and the Japanese philosophy of wabi sabi, the art of impermanence. DB: Which scents do you recommend for men? FP: All our creations are genderless...but men might connect more with Rose 31, Bergamote 22, Vetiver 46 and our new Santal 33. DB: What music are you listening to, and food are you obsessed with right now? FP: Music ( as we speak): my morning jacket, food: Dr Cow's cheese and your seitan bourguignon!! DB: Why are you vegan? FP: Because i think it is key for us to stop taking advantage of other living creatures in the world if we want to see humanity evolve in a more peaceful and sustainable way. I think it might be the most important choice I ever made in my life. Not that I made a lot of them, but still...

Monk Shoes, Champs Consolidates & Doughnut Wisdom

joshuakatcher — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:28:13 +0000

• Monk shoes have been popping up (and buckling down) all over the place, and Bourgeois Boheme has them with brogue details in black and brown. Snazzy. Yes, snazzy. • Earlier this month, the Vegetarian Food Festival took NYC by storm. In addition to scarfing down a Faux Gras sandwich and emceeing a doughnut-eating-contest, I took some photos of gentlemen with personal style who were on line (for 3 hours) or wandering around the area. Also threw in a picture of Chef Ayinde Howell cheering after serving up his famous mac-n-yease, and some fun costumes from Foodswings. • Although it's a bummer whenever a veg establishment closes it doors (as what happened to Williamsburg's Boneshakers), it's cool that they were able to consolidate with their other location, Champs, and now in addition to being a bakery, Champs offers an edited version of the Boneshakers menu including a yummy weekend brunch. I swung by on saturday and scarfed down a Tofu-Benedict on sourdough with vegan hollandaise sauce and a side of greens and mac-n-jeeze. I love my neighborhood! • Dunwell Doughnuts, the Brooklyn start-up featured a really interesting article on food activism today: We believe that a vegan doughnut could be a tremendous ambassador for vegan food. Also because we stepped into this believing that we wouldn't simply be making a good doughnut "considering it's vegan," but an AMAZING doughnut, heck, perhaps even the best doughnut you could find, vegan or non-vegan alike. Opening a shop would allow us to share this treat with people AND create a place for that much needed community.

Viscous Vegetarians & Championship Fights

joshuakatcher — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:40:24 +0000

The UFC homepage had this image up yesterday! How cool is that? Vegan and vegetarian men are kicking serious ass, and on April 30th, Jake Shields will be fighting for the welterweight championship! Who is hosting a party in NYC to watch?

Christopher Hollowell’s 5 Hour Activism

joshuakatcher — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 23:40:13 +0000

Not only is contributor, Christopher Hollowell, the confounding purveyor of NYC's first vegan doughnut enterprise, Dunwell Doughnuts, but he is also a stylish Discerning Brute and activist for animals. Christopher writes about his recent and effective experience with getting a business to stop using animal fur. Last month, when I was able to get Urban Outfitters to publicly apologize for selling real fur labeled as faux, it was emboldening and easier than I thought. Cases like this go to show that concerned emails, phone calls, and rational requests often work. Here's Christopher's experience in five easy steps. Do you have a similar story? Share it in the comments below. By Christopher Hollowell It is often difficult as an “activist,” and I use that word in the broadest way possible, to feel like any form of action we do truly makes a difference. We recycle to stop global warming and yet everyday see thousands of plastic water bottles being used and thrown into the trash, we cut the rings on the plastic device used to hold soda cans together in hopes that it won’t end up strangling a bird rummaging around in a landfill, we hand out pamphlets that end up in the trashcan down the block, we give up meat and advocate for a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle all the while watching fast food chains grow and advertise all around us, and we ride our bikes only to get an ear full of horns and a face full of exhaust. The entire notion of being an activist can, in many ways, feel like a futile effort. An effort that, at times, seems to be based more in faith than logic as societal pressures for the immediate creep into our psyche. “When will I see the change?” we ask ourselves. Well, this past week I saw change. And change happened fast. On March 24th at 5:33 I received a message from my friend directing me to an article that would at first disgust me and eventually be a source of extreme joy and a symbol of the power our voices can have. The Article, titled “Fur-Out: Rubil & Raven Does Fur Hair Extensions” for sfindiefashion.com was intended to highlight the “cool” new fashion trend that was beginning at a salon in the heart of San Francisco. A stylist there, Sonja E., had decided to reinvent the trendy feather extension look that has recently become ‘all the rage’ in SF by exchanging the feathers with fur. In the article she was quoted to have found inspiration for the idea while looking around a local bait shop where a plethora of fishing ties that utilized fur were on display. This article praised the practice as the beginning of the “next big trend” in the city. I was furious. Those who know me know that of all the things that make me mad, fur tops the list. The illogic of wearing or using it is so forging to my mind that I become visibly altered when I am in its presence. This article was no different. I immediately set to work.

Fur hair-extensions in a variety of dyed, dead chinchilla pelts.

Step One: Respond to the article, which had had pictures of the author getting her hair done in these unnecessary and cruel accessories, with a calm and thoughtful analysis that highlighted my disagreement with the practice and hopes for its end. Step two: Contact the salon offering the treatment by phone and speak with the owner. This was an interesting point because the owner was a very nice man who was a great conversationalist but was, at the time, unwilling take on responsibility for the actions of a stylist working within his salon because of her status as an independent contractor. I proceeded to make him aware that I found it to be an unwise business practice to allow one’s name to be used in the promotion of any product or service that he himself did not oversee or approve. Because of this I would be organizing a boycott of the entire salon including any other stylist who was working under the same roof as the aforementioned Sonja E. whom he asserted was the only person offering the extensions. Step Three: Put boycott into action. Using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter I posted the salon’s phone number and Yelp page whilst encouraging everyone I knew to contact and boycott this salon and those who work within its walls until the situation was rectified. Step Four: Lower the yelp rating of the salon. At the time I read the article Rubio & Raven had a five star rating on Yelp, by the time I had finished it was close to a three. Step Five: Educate the salon as to what the fur they are using represents and what it actually means to promote something so frivolous and disgusting. (Thank you Tim Gunn and PETA for making such a great film that explores this issue) In less than five hours, around 10:20PM, I received a personal letter from Sonja, the stylist using the extensions, apologizing for her actions and promising to immediately cease all use of fur within the salon. She further went on to praise my commitment and passion for the cause and explain that she had had no idea that what she was using was not faux, she had assumed that all fur on that scale was faux and that it was never her intention to contribute to any form of animal cruelty. The battle had been won, the fur was gone, and this all happened in less than 5 hours. How is that for activism paying off?

illustration of Christopher by Richard Haines

I immediately called off the boycott of the salon and lauded them for their haste in rectifying the situation. I further went on to explain to her and the salon that ignorance is only an excuse once and that I was happy that they chose to heed the call and rise above fashion at any cost. That next morning I noticed that the article that had so openly praised the use of the fur extensions had been changed and now claimed:

* Editor’s Note: The SF Indie Fashion editorial team has removed identifying information for the salon and its stylist due to threats made against the business. The salon has since stopped offering the service.

A Wild Goose Chase for Airline Safety

joshuakatcher — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:47:57 +0000

Canada Goose: plate from BIRDS OF AMERICA

It's a bird! It's a plane! For the past two years, New York City has gone on a wild goose chase in an attempt to mitigate concerns about airline safety. The logic is something like this: If we kill most of the birds in the air around airports, they won't accidentally fly into engines and cause plane crashes. Yes, let's model our technology after the elegant design of mother nature's birds - and then kill our idols so they don't get in the way of imitating them. Following this line of logic, maybe we should also melt all the ice-burgs so boats will not hit them and sink. Oh wait...aren't we doing that? I think I just came up with a new spin on global warming for the CCF's PR masterminds. Global Warming prevents Titanic tragedies! New York City has contracted with the Wildlife Services division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to kill Canada geese. So far more than 2,800 Canada geese have been cruelly rounded up during molting season, when the geese shed their flight feathers and cannot fly away. After being rounded up in pens, the geese are transported to mobile gas chambers where they are asphyxiated with carbon dioxide gas. It is a slow, painful and utterly unjustified death for these beautiful birds. The city claims the geese are killed to make air travel safer, but killing geese does nothing to enhance airline safety. Click HERE to join IDA's Virtual Demo and take action for NYC's geese right now.

The Hunt & Spring Accessories

joshuakatcher — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:23:02 +0000

“La chasse au lièvre" by Armand Charnay, French, 1868.

I came across this painting while doing some research and found it to be particularly haunting. This French impressionist managed to capture the anonymity, the pensive mood, and the ambiguous darkness in moment when a group of men are about to bludgeon a rabbit. It's clear that the artist has an opinion about this act - but also the complexity of such actions. For example, what are the circumstances? Is this about survival? Is for amusement? Does the rabbit get away? Unlike other paintings where the hunt is glorified, or baroque still-life images showcasing dead animals draped like decorations among flowers and fruits - this painting does not glorify the men or beautify the hunt.

Photo courtesy of the Humane Society of the United States

In a startlingly similar image of the seal hunt, which is about to commence once again, a man stands over a baby seal about to bludgeon it with a club. But, unlike the painting above, we know the circumstances of this action. The seal does not get away. The body is left to rot, a bloody mess, on the ice. It is unnecessary and done for fashion garments that are banned in many parts of the world, yet the Canadian government allows this cruel and unnecessary mass killing - the largest slaughter of marine mammals on the planet - to continue year after year. Click here to send a letter to Canada's politicians. • Italian-made, light brown vegan boat shoes and woven-belts for spring! Get on it.