Recycling Reviled Rodents Into Outrageous Fashion Accessories

Historically, our quest for nourishment, warmth and then ultimately the pursuit of perpetually dramatic fashion statements has prompted mankind to continually transform the bodies and skins of Mother Nature's creatures into our personal adornments. Beyond consuming various animals such as elk, wild boars or aurochs for physical survival, early humans were the original recyclers, utilizing every conceivable part that remained in some practical manner (including the skins as a form of protection against the elements). Much further along the evolutionary timeline, American Indians demonstrated similiar reverance for the creatures that they sacrificed not only by ensuring that every bit of their physical bodies was used, but also by incorporating animal spirits into their ceremonies and overall culture.

Somewhere along the line however, we stopped worrying so much about how lucky we were to score a protein-packed meal, we became far less concerned with the spiritual connection that animals have to the Earth and we certainly weren't focusing on the fact that they were a finite resource that we should try to appreciate. With the advent of domestication and factory farming, we soon recognized that we had all of the flesh that we could ever want right at our fingertips. Survival was no longer a struggle. Exotic creatures that were fortunate enough to remain in the wild blue yonder ended up becoming the focus of a number of mankind's pastimes, including game/trophy hunting, fashion and black market profit. Despite hunting certain species to extinction (or the verge) and/or using cruel and unusual methods to ensure that animal skins remain as blemish-free as possible, our culture has become somewhat immune to what our gimme-gimme attitude has done to the Earth's formerly vast, diverse and well-balanced animal kingdom population.

How we can regard certain species such as tigers and lions with awe and others such as prairie dogs and rodents with distain is beyond me given the fact that they are all a very integral part of the ecosystem. Nevertheless, our littlest critters have consistently earned a reputation as highly efficient disease spreaders and have consequently been the subject of incessant extermination efforts in all four corners of the world. Beyond our attempts to stomp them out, even the most ardent animal lover might not shed a single animal-rights-tear upon the discovery that mice, rats and guinea pigs continue to be used as laboratory subjects, because HEY -- at least they're serving to advance modern medicine and help us to develop new treatments that will prolong and preserve the lives of human beings! What would you think, then, about these creatures being used to adorn your lapel, hair or neck? At least their petite little carcasses could be transformed into something of value...and you like recycling, right?

I think that it's pretty safe to say that Reid Peppard's pieces aren't at all like what our grandmothers might have proudly worn around their necks or pinned to their coats while on a hot date to the opera. Born and raised in California, Peppard moved to London in 2004 where she has lived and worked ever since on her left-of-center RP/ENCORE collection of rodent and vermin taxidermy jewelry and fashion accessories. Now, before you dare to protest her efforts -- whether from an animal rights perspective or from one of sheer rodent-disease fearing disgust -- consider the fact that she is attempting to help us rethink what what we consider fashionable. More importantly, in this chronically disposable consumer culture of ours where we buy, use and dispose of untold amounts of plastic junk, Peppard's goal is to create a line of organic fashion pieces that utilize "the prolific, consequential vermin result of London's excess." 

You probably never ever ever in your wildest dreams considered carrying a rat carcass purse with you to the store, nor did you imagine yourself sporting mouse head cufflinks, but for centuries, entire fox and mink bodies draped around necks were de rigeur, so what's the real difference? Is it really more acceptable that larger animal skins (perceived as majestic symbols of affluence) are obtained either via electrocution or other highly unfortunate means, as opposed to every rat, mouse, pigeon and guinea pig in Peppard's RP/ENCORE collection, which is the victim either of her cat Panasonic, pest control, natural death, road kill or the consequence of the snake food industry? Like American Indians and many other recycling civilizations before them, Peppard makes every effort "to ensure that the remnants of these creatures is not put to waste but is ground up and fed to other animals." Are you surprised that the taxidermist-jewelry-maker also happens to be a vegetarian? Isn't she really just honoring the subjects of her fashion accessories by cannonizing their remains with Swarovski Crystal accents and in effect, elevating them from sub-standard things to decorative artifacts worthy of being on display?

Photo credits: George Garnier, reidpeppard.blogspot.com