Author: Hongbin Gu

Mengyu Zhang

Ms Zhang is a curatorial direction student in UAL, and from her personal experience, she is not a lover or user of fur products. Her knowledge of fur is mainly focused on the use of her parents’ generation and media reports. She supports the concept of bio-synthetic fur, but she also expresses her concern that when bio-synthetic fur is successfully developed and brought to the market, there will be unscrupulous merchants selling genuine fur under the banner of bio-synthetic fur (there is no difference in nature between the two). As for the plight of fur materials, apart from the pressure of moral opinion, Ms Zhang believes that consumerism is also a huge factor, as fur is being replaced by other materials as a symbol of wealth and status. Therefore, for the future positioning of bio-synthetic fur, Miss Zhang expects it to be a universal and cheaper material compared to genuine fur.

The above is a transcription of Miss Zhang’s interview.

Yuqian Ma

As an environmental designer and a postgraduate student of jewellery design in RCA, London, Miss Ma is a new generation of creative industry practitioners, this interview with her was limited to three simple questions due to time and space constraints. Her answers explained her background and affirmed the significance and value of bio-synthetic fur, she did not give clear advice about the positioning of bio-synthetic fur as she does not consider herself to be a veteran of the apparel industry, and on her own, she feels that bio-synthetic fur should be subdivided into different classes in order to adapt to all levels of the market.

Finally, she added that the application of bio-synthetic fur can be extended beyond the fabric industry, whether it is in jewellery and accessories or home furnishings, these potential consumer sectors can expand the use and value of bio-synthetic fur.

Street Interview

Overall, the street interview was a failure as most of the people rejected my request. There are two reasons leading the result: I appeared subjectively shy and resistant to such interviews with strangers honestly, and I was inexperienced in questionnaire preparation for street interviews, and time attempts. Therefore, I think the next step, I need to find students who are good at interested in a piece with me or I will change this session into the mode of acquaintance introduction, firstly, to improve the efficiency, and secondly, to target the creative industry can get more senior professional feedback.

According to the feedback from Hotroom, my unit 4 plan has been fine-tuned based on unit 3, and this change is mainly on two directions: firstly I need to continue to deepen my investigation with stakeholders and secondly I need to find more support on the logical and theoretical level about commercial and ethical significance bio-synthetic fur.

In terms of stakeholder, based on George’s suggestion, I categorized the stakeholder into three types, consumers, industry practitioners and investors. The questionnaires and pitching proposal corresponding to consumers and investors respectively need to be enlarged samples. I plan to get more than one thousand questionnaires and interviews with more than five investors in later three months. I hope these samples can help me better understand the market, conceptual significance and direction of development of bio-synthetic fur. The main change is stakeholder investigation of the industry practitioners of this piece. My research should not be limited in fur industry, instead, it should be targeted on whole of a creative industry. This is a kind of expansion, but more corrective because a single industry research will lead to the results of the similar survey results. More persuasive and innovative views for bio-synthetic fur is asking broader objective professional evaluation from whole creative industry.

On the logical and theoretical level I need to find more support for the idea that bio-synthetic fur makes commercial and ethical sense. Firstly, I need to prove that the current decline in demand for fur is mainly due to environmental and animal protection issues, and secondly, whether the introduction of bio-synthetic fur can solve dilemma above and rekindle people’s interest for fur material. In genera, for this unit I need to clarify whether the decline of the material is a result of the material losing its value(people don’t like furry products anymore), or the controversy it carries overshadows the material’s value.

Schedule of tasks

Task	Deadline	Tips
Get more than 1000 questionnaires	25th November	Obtaining a portion of the offline sample in person
Get 5 more interviews with investor	27th November	Recording and make feedback for the pitching presentation
Make a new questionnaire to clarify the reasons why people decrease the demand for fur	20th November	Obtaining more than 200 sample for this questionnaire
Theory learning or secondary research about the logical relationship between the decline in demand for fur and the existence of animal/environmental protection	5th November	Searching some authoritative interviews, the environmental/animal protection movement and other forms of evidence(at least 5 pieces)

This is the starting week of unit 4. After understanding the content and requirements of unit 4, I broadly made my research plan for next few months, fine-tuned my strategic direction (based on UNIT 3), while at the same time I continued to subdivide my stakeholders and deepen my visit to my stakeholder based on the suggestions of the tutorial.

My research plan mainly consists of two parts, primary and secondary research, the primary part is mainly questionnaire interviews and offline interviews while the secondary part is mainly for the logic of the loophole to add. I quantify some specific tasks and set a time line. (See more on Strategic Reorientation)

The stakeholder interviews this week were based on George’s suggestion, I contacted five practitioners in creative industry and also tried to get some people’s opinions on the street. Unfortunately only one invitee completed a brief interview and recorded the voice this week. Meanwhile, due to in lack of preparation, the street interviews suffered from the majority of people’s rejection. (See more on Investigation )

Overall this is the week for preparation and plan. Development of established plans have been slow in the early stages but initial conversations with industry practitioners have confirmed that I can expect to get their views in the coming weeks.

This summer of independent learning has been very fulfilling overall. Firstly, under the guidance by Zuleika, I made a study plan for the summer, which mainly divided the whole  programme into two parts: academic research and practical exploration.

My academic research is in three main areas, animal environmental protection, materials and biotechnology. Animal conservation and environmental protection served as the starting point for the entire project, and I focused on the history of the origins of these two movements as well as their contemporary status. Then, in order to better communicate my intentions to the audience, I researched soy protein and other fibre materials with a view to possibly creating a 3d model in the future. Finally, for the purpose of writing and applying for patents and other specialised documents, I have done extensive theoretical reading on all the technologies involved in bio-synthetic fur, including skin structure, stem cell technology and fur craftsmanship.

According to the timeline, my work in this summer was mainly expert interviews, US visits, and patent applications. Before independent learning started, I interviewed three stakeholders, Abbey, Kim and Will who represent opinions from fashion, marketing and investing area respectively. Then to realise my theoretical research, I went to Columbia University in the US to meet with a team of experts, and through the trip to the US, I reached a collaboration between my bio-synthetic fur and KC Lab, and through the conversation between Jason Zhou and Prof. Chandran, I had a deeper expectation of realising bio-synthetic fur. After returning to China, I met with several industry professionals, including Cao and Chen from fur and faux fur industry, and learnt about the current status of fur industry and the challenges it is facing. Finally, I applied for a patent for bio-synthetic fur in China, and through the co-operation with Zhongli & Partners, the patent has been written and is expected to reach the preliminary examination by the end of the year.

Lastly, I have spent most of my holiday working on this project, which has generally been going well. Admittedly some things have not gone as well as expected, such as the signing of the agreement with Columbia University and the financing consultancy, but all of this has been foreseen and is expected to be resolved in the near future!

With Cao(Genuine Fur Industry Base)

Ms Cao is the founder of OFY Fur Co., Ltd. in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. As a renowned supplier of high-end fur products in China, Ms Cao has more than 20 years of experience in the industry and has witnessed the emergence, development, decline and transformation of fur industry in China.

At the beginning of interview, Ms Cao talked about the distribution of the fur industry in China and the history of the industry in modern times. She emphasized that China is the largest producer and consumer of fur products while the largest production and processing base for fur is currently located in Yuyao, where her factory is located, as well as in the north-east, Hebei and Guangdong Province. For historical and climatic reasons, fur has been in demand in most parts of China (mainly northern and central China), both for its physiological needs in cold climates and for a long time as a symbol of the Chinese people’s social need for luxury and prestige. China’s contemporary fur industry is largely brought up by Hong Kong businessmen after the reform and opening up, by the Hong Kong capital in Guangdong to set up a number of fur enterprises for the Chinese fur industry has laid a solid foundation. Then it is the continued development of Zhejiang and Hebei and reached today’s scale.

Ms Cao believes that today’s fur industry has reached a watershed, when the kind of blowout development is gone, replaced by a more refined competition in the industry and a strong demand for new materials and new technology. As a senior practitioner, Ms Cao understands the huge challenges of environmental protection and animal protection for the industry. From the perspective of the industry as a whole, the current industrial chain is particularly polluted in the dyeing and calibrating process. There are also ethical sores in the raw material extraction process. This state of affairs has led to a vicious circle and a steady decline in the industry. Despite the tough situation in the industry, Ms Cao expresses her determination and confidence in the transition, as she believes that the demand for fur products has not fundamentally changed, and that as long as the industry is able to meet the popular demand for environmental protection and animal protection in the future, the industry will be able to usher in a return to growth. Her company is cooperating with more dyeing factories that have new technologies, aiming to reduce the negative environmental impact of the industry chain. At the same time, they are also committed to new material research cooperation, hoping that in the near future, the use of fur materials that do not harm animals and have natural properties will be possible.

With Chen(Intensive Employee in Faux Fur Industry)

Mr Chen is a former skilled worker at Ningbo Datong Textile Co., Ltd. where he worked for more than 8 years and witnessed many important moments in the company’s development and has a deep knowledge of faux fur industry.

The interview with Mr Chen is divided into three main sections: his experience in the industry, his assessment of the industry status and his prediction of the industry.

Mr Chen was initially a flat car worker, mainly responsible for the production of the company’s ready-to-wear samples, he has been in this position for eight years, during which time he has learned about the different processes and types of faux fur, Datong produces products that are mainly divided into four main categories (classified according to the length of the hair) covering most of the alternatives for fur animals. Now Mr Chen is the company’s technical director, involved in part of the company’s new product development and garment effect testing. In general, he is a intensive practitioner of faux fur industry.

Mr Chen gave an all-encompassing appraisal of the current state of the industry. Firstly, he emphasised that it is a volatile and growing industry, and that faux fur products have two big advantages: price and philosophy. Due to large-scale production, faux fur has a cost advantage that is unrivalled by genuine fur, while animal protectionism provides moral backing for the industry. Mr Chen mentioned that the vast majority of faux fur is also much lighter in weight compared to real one, which has won many customers for faux fur. Strangely, however, the development of faux fur has not been plain sailing, with cheapness and environmental constraints causing the industry to have its ups and downs in China. Due to publicity and cognitive reasons, in the eyes of Chinese consumers, faux fur is still not more precious than genuine fur, in such an country animal protectionism is not too prevalent, people prefer genuine one. More fatal is that Mr. Chen admitted that most of the artificial fur products have environmental pollution problems( Datong alone is currently facing dozens of fines and lawsuits related to pollution), except in recent years the application of some acrylic fibres to reverse this dilemma, but the whole industry in the field of material transformation is still a long way to go.

Talking about the industry future, Mr Chen said faux fur still has a lot to offer. Due to the continuous improvement of technology, the future of artificial fur is expected to create a more simulated and more environmentally friendly products while  fur animal farming with issue of COVID-19 has accelerated atrophy. Therefore, the vacuum of the market to the faux fur industry has brought unprecedented opportunities!

In fact, my intervention is a large multi-session event which includes theoretical learning, new concept presentation(proposal and pitching), market testing, expert and investor interviews. The most important aspect of this is a sample evaluation test at this stage of the process because of the suggestion from investor and actual demand for market data.  It is taking place both online and offline.

The online portion of the event was conducted in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Chongqing and Sichuan, seven of China’s most dynamic consumer provinces. The online intervention attracted more than 200 participants from a wide range of occupations, with white-collar workers and students being the main occupational backgrounds of the participants (accounting for more than 15 per cent of the total number of participants). More than 90% of these 200 participants expressed positive expectations for bio-synthetic fur. However, it is interesting to note that more than half of the participants were not willing to pay the premium price of this new technology or even felt that it had to be cheaper than real fur, while less than 30% of the participants said that they would accept an end product that was more expensive than real fur. This data set provides an anchor guide for future pricing and positioning of the project. In the final recommendation section, most respondents expressed their support for environmental and animal protection, while requesting some features of bio-synthetic fur such as value for money and market endorsement.

The offline part of the intervention took place in the shopping streets and financial districts of Hangzhou and Shanghai, which were chosen to get more feedback from fashion practitioners and financial investors. By visiting the neighbourhoods of Xintiandi in Shanghai and Wanxiang City in Hangzhou, the intervention gained the views from a large number of students in the fashion and creative industries (due to the weekend and summer holidays) as well as some financiers. Almost all of the respondents expressed support for bio-synthetic fur, but even more extreme than the results from online interviews was the fact that none of the hundreds of respondents were willing to pay the high premium for such a product, with more people seeing alternatives to genuine fur as being cheaper than genuine fur. Due to background similarities and other reasons, most of the opinions of the entity visitors are in favour of the development of the market dimension at the same time, some extended thinking in the field of fashion, many people feel the need to dock more designers and fashion celebrities to expand awareness, while some people also talked about future large-scale production about bio-synthetic fur.

Overall, this was a very practical and well-planned intervention because essentially this intervention is under the guidance from tutor and some stakeholder. Therefore, it is very targeted and the preliminary market survey largely ensures the significance of the bio-synthetic fur development while providing strong guidance and support for its vague pricing and positioning. At the same time, for me personally, the interviews on the street were a brand new experiment, and this intervention expanded my comfort zone, giving me the opportunity to communicate with strangers and get their fair and objective evaluations. This part of the voice may not express support for the project, but its authenticity is a reminder that I don’t need to be blindly optimistic about my own project, and that I need to add more dimensions to my thinking.

China Mainland

Overview of biosynthetic fur technology

1. Through woolisation process (woolization), the fur animal hair is combed and stripped to obtain needle hair and down, according to the proportion of needle hair and down distribution of different animals (mink, for example, the ratio of needle hair and down is 1:60~1:70) and the number of needle hair distribution per unit area (mink, for example, 479-540 roots / square centimetre) to get the hair tufts (mink, for example, 500 tufts / square centimetre, each tuft has 1 needle hair and 65 down hair) evenly distributed in a net-like manner within the unit area. tufts/cm2 , 1 needle hair per tuft, 65 downy hairs) were evenly distributed in the unit area according to the mesh, and each tuft was integrated by using tissue sheath (Connective tissue sheath, CTS fibroblasts), and this was used as the medium for each cell of the skin and gallbladder.
2. Stem cells are extracted from the blood of fur animals and reprogrammed to an embryonic-like pluripotent state (i.e., iPSC induced pluripotent stem cells), and the induced pluripotent stem cells are used for the directional synthesis of various types of keratinocytes and fibroblasts required for the composition of the epidermis and dermis, and the cells required for biosynthesis of fur are optimised and streamlined according to the application of different skins and hides (for example, for the application of real mink fur). (Mink for example, the real mink fur application will eliminate a lot of fat in the hypodermis hypo-dermis, so this kind of directional synthesis can be screened to eliminate fat, blood vessels, etc.) and according to the real situation of various animals to arrange the combination of the required cells in the hair cluster culture medium and grow in this way.
3. Epidermis main synthesis cells (from outside to inside)
   Stratum corneum – 5 to 15 layers of flat, non-nucleated cells
   Hyaline layer – flatter cells
   Granular layer – flat cells
   Echinocyte layer – spiny cells
   Basal layer – single layer of columnar cells
4. Main synthetic cells and fibres of the dermis
   Collagen fibres
   Reticular fibres
   Elastic fibres
   Matrix – proteoglycans
5. According to the specific situation of growth and development, waiting for there is obvious cell layering, and finally using the nitro system process, to get the biosynthetic fur.
   Patent advantage: through the patent, fur products from the performance of biomimetic and other aspects will be no different from real leather products, compared with the traditional artificial fur, for the environment and ecological pollution is extremely small (almost no), while reducing animal killing, and can maintain part of the original industry employment and the rights and interests of breeding animals (traditional fur animal hair wool use, a conservative estimate of the impact of China’s 7 million people employed in the industry)