Furries and fashion: do’s and don’ts
by Patch O'Furr
VICE magazine is reputed to be some kind of a “hipster” bible, earning love or hate, depending on your perspective. Actually, their news documentaries have earned plenty of respect. Even when they mess with readers, it can be surprisingly informative. You can see it in their “Furries” tag. (Notice the coverage of furries and the adult-crowdfunding site Offbeatr, a topic that can’t be left out of any discussion of a “furry economy”. You won’t find many journalists covering that.)
Fashion “do’s and don’ts” is one of their well-known features. (I’m told these are actually decided by a coin flip.) Today’s “Don’t” may disappoint a few costumers, and inspire others (like me): if you’re going to dress furry, don’t give it weak effort. Yiffy Sparkledogs or nothing!
I don’t follow VICE, but I’m checking in this week to see when they post my photo. One of their photographers got me to pose this weekend outside a show. I won’t post it here because my outfit wasn’t a fursuit- just a glitter-bedazzled nightmare. But it was an ensemble I did build to match a partial suit, for the right furry occasion. I’ll rock it elsewhere.
Dressing a character in endless wardrobe options is an under-appreciated partial-fursuit performance tactic, I think. The more cartoonish, the better. I have an article sitting in drafts about the fun of furry fashion experimenting. It concerns topics like ridiculous thrift store finds, that couldn’t have a better match than a fursuit.
“Patch’s fursuit fashion tips” is coming whenever I get the inspiration to finish it.