the times | Saturday February 10 2024 19

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Green or gross? Gen Z says its fine to wear real fur . . . if it’s vintage
Lola Clarke, right,
Influencers opting for Bond film. I bought it at the Ardingly
antiques fair. It’s leopard print; it’s says real fur is
grown up with the anti-fur
movement. Gen Xers would recall
pre-loved mink have pretty amazing,” she said.
You could not pick up anything
more sustainable
than plastic faux
David Bailey’s striking “Dumb
Animals” campaign issued by
crossed the industry’s similar in a charity shop. Oxfam and fuzz, as does Greenpeace in 1984. Ditto when
Cancer Research shops do not Federica Labanca Vogue’s fur-clad Anna Wintour
most divisive frontier, accept donations made of fur. Most famously received a tofu pie to the
shoppers source it from designer face from protesters during Paris
Hannah Rogers writes vintage stores or reputable antique Fashion Week in 2005.
and flea markets. You can also Elisa Allen, Peta’s vice-president

F
orget how you use emojis or find fur on the resale platforms, of programmes, said: “Whether the
part your hair, the TikTok Depop and eBay. animal died yesterday or decades
generation’s latest age- The other option for ago, when someone wears fur, they
revealing litmus test is far shoppers is to hope they can appear to be endorsing a nasty
more controversial. Just ask inherit one. Hannah, a industry that kills animals in
yourself: would you wear real fur? 28-year-old fashion crude ways, leaches toxic
If you are over the age of 30, the assistant, said it felt like a chemicals into waterways and
answer would almost certainly be waste not to make the most devastates entire ecosystems.
no. For Gen X and millennials, the of a mink handed down by “Anyone with leftover fur
use of fur is fashion’s most divisive her mum. “She bought it from a bygone era can do some
frontier. Even if they owned some, back in the seventies. I have good with it by donating it to
they would never admit to it. That thought twice about wearing Peta to be used as bedding for
rule does not apply to Gen Z. it, but it’s the warmest coat I orphaned animals or shipped
Just ask Lola Clark. The own and has remained in great overseas to help refugees in
18-year-old TikTok influencer and condition. I don’t mind telling cold climates — only people
granddaughter of the fashion people it’s vintage real fur if struggling to survive have any
designer, Ossie Clark, said her they ask,” she said. excuse for wearing old furs.”
friends think real fur is cool again, A report in London’s The luxury conglomerate
with one caveat — it has to be Evening Standard this week Kering, which owns Gucci,
second-hand. She is among a said the city’s young cool crowd announced it would go
growing crowd of eco-conscious had “started to resemble a zoo” for fur-free in 2021. Prada does
young shoppers wearing inherited “the sheer number of animal pelts not work with fur and neither
and vintage-sourced pelts to parties. cloaked on people’s backs”. do Burberry, Versace or Chanel.
They think it is more sustainable The price clearly does not concern Federica Labanca, 27, a
than plastic faux fuzz — and are them. The cost of second-hand fur London-based stylist, said: “I am
happy to wear mink in the milk aisle. can be high. A fake take at New against new fur and what fur stands
“It makes more sense to buy real Look is £60, but the real thing could for. To wear something passed down
fur, but vintage,” said Clark. The be two to three times that. Clark said from generation to generation has to
Central Saint Martins student it is this, not veganism, that stands in be more sustainable and sentimental
collects pre-loved fur with her mum the way of more of her peers taking than wearing something new made
and sister. It is a specialist buy: the up the trend. “Not everyone can of plastic fibres.
trio “thrift” for theirs in Amsterdam, afford vintage real fur because it can “Old fur keeps you warmer, it’s
on Notting Hill’s Portobello Road be quite expensive.” better for the environment and
and from old movie sets. “We have This shift in attitude may come as you. But people still don’t agree with
one that was featured in a James a shock to millennials. They have it, even if it’s vintage.”

How lounge lizard met his match

A fraudster who stole shower the women with gifts, weekends
away and expensive meals.
est venture and I’ll pay it back next
week’. And then he disappears.”
he met a woman through a dating web-
site and passed himself off as a barrister
£300,000 from several The offences were committed over
the course of a year, but McNamara’s
As it was, James was sceptical about
McNamara and stopped returning his
with the Crown Prosecution Service,
local media reported at the time.
women did not always record stretches back further than that, messages. “In the grand scheme of McNamara would go on to persuade
The Times can reveal. He has served things, I wasn’t particularly interested. four women in Cheshire, Warwickshire
get his wicked way, several prison sentences for scores of And I smelt a rat,” he said. and Hertfordshire to give him more
similar crimes dating back to 2010. Georgina had socialised in the same than £302,000 between September
writes Charlotte Wace “Thank god I never lent him that group and it was some weeks before 2022 and September last year. His
£400 because that was probably just the they reconnected on a dating app. downfall came after his victim in
When Cieran McNamara asked to start, to test what I would give him,” Georgina said: “I already knew him, Cheshire realised what he was doing
borrow £400 from Georgina, she made Georgina said. “After that, it would I’d met him several times as part of the and reported her concerns to police.
her excuses. They had first met socially probably be, can you just give me group, so for me, it wasn’t some random An investigation by Cheshire police
in about 2016 and when they came another £500, have you got £1,000?” guy I was meeting.” resulted in McNarama’s arrest in Col-
across each other on a dating site they McNamara, from Coventry, was However, she found it “weird” when chester in September.
decided to meet. mostly brought up by his grandmother, he made her pay for a taxi and only paid Detective Constable Victoria Hazle-
But Georgina, who was in her 30s and Kathleen O’Sullivan, and her husband, for his own food and drinks. wood said that McNamara showed lit-
living in Cheshire, was put off when Maurice, after his mother, Christine When they met again, “alarm bells” tle emotion during police interviews.
McNamara, then going by the alias Ostrowski, struggled to care for him. started to ring when he used a different Unlike many romance fraudsters,
Christian Griffin, never offered to buy His family said he began stealing from first name during a telephone call. who lurk online, McNamara often tar-
her a drink and at one point slipped up his grandmother’s purse when he was Contact between them fizzled out. geted women slowly and carefully.
and used a different name. “A woman’s But some months later, she received a She said: “I think he basically formed
instinct is a very powerful thing — and Cieran McNamara prison. By early 2016, he was out of pris- call out of the blue from a woman ask- those relationships first so that he’s got
my gut instinct about him was that I began stealing at on and integrating himself within the ing if she had heard from McNamara. a back story. Then, when he meets his
couldn’t trust him,” she said. age 11 from the wealthy community of Alderley Edge, The woman, according to Georgina, victims a few months later, he’s got
Months after declining his request purse of his Cheshire, when he met James, a had been in a relationship with him. He people that can verify his account, if
for money, Georgina was telephoned by grandmother, wealthy businessman. In a revealing had claimed he was unable to access his that makes sense. It’s very calculated.”
a woman who claimed that he had Kathleen O’Sullivan glimpse of how McNamara operated, clothes and belongings so the woman She added that McNamara would
taken thousands of pounds from her James recalled how the fraudster, who had agreed to lend him her credit card. not only target people for money but
during a relationship. then called himself Christian, tried to Georgina said: “She trusted him. And because they could be useful to him. For
This week, she discovered just how 11. His father was described by relatives strike up a friendship. I know she bought him quite a lot of instance, they might have “luxury items
lucky she had been. At Chester crown as “a fly-by-night and a philanderer”. “I was in a local bar ... he was just in clothes, running up a couple of thou- or luxury homes that he can try and
court, McNamara, 37, was jailed for In court McNamara claimed that the there, obviously looking for his next sand pounds. Then he was living at hers pass off as being his own to verify his
seven years for defrauding four women “only constant” in his life had been his female”, James said. and living off her. And then all of a own story”, she said.
out of more than £300,000. stepfather, who was described as a On one night out, McNamara asked sudden, one day he went.” His transient lifestyle and regular
The “lounge lizard” conman posed as “career fraudster”. to borrow £150 explaining that he had The police later began looking into changes of phone had made him diffi-
a barrister, a company director and a McNamara left home at 18. He no cash. But the debt was repaid almost the case and contacted Georgina to ask cult to track down. Hazlewood added:
property developer and often ensnared dropped out of a catering course before immediately. for her help. It is unclear whether char- “He said to one victim, who doesn’t
his victims at exclusive hotels and clubs, landing a job in the anti-fraud depart- James said: “My guess it that was ges were brought in relation to this form part of our court case, that it didn’t
as well as on dating apps. ment in a bank, according to his family. probably a convincer and had he stayed woman’s claims. matter whether she called the police,
To convince the women he was a In 2010, at the age of 23, he appeared in my life, he would likely have bor- In November 2017, McNamara was the army and the prime minister — he
wealthy bachelor, he showed them pic- in three separate courts across the UK rowed more and more money: bor- jailed for two years and four months was never going to be found, and she
tures of mansions and first-class travel. where he pleaded guilty to various rowed £150, paid it back, borrowed after pleading guilty to five fraud char- was never going to get her money back.”
In some instances, he would use ccharges of fraud by false representa- £1,000, paid it back, £5,000, paid it back. ges under one of his other names. Some names have been changed.
money from previous partners to tion and subsequently spent time in And then: ‘I need £1 million for my lat- Warwick crown court was told that Additional reporting: Christine Challand