What Do Lucille Ball and Kim Catrall Have in Common?

Flashback: 1950's, I Love Lucy. An American icon. I loved watching re-runs as a kid. Still do. Two things that bring no laughter: shows in which she covets fur (in one episode, she actually sleeps in her mink stole she loves it so much), and scenes where the Ricardos light up.

We now know how harmful the cigarettes are that they were smoking. Desi Arnaz in fact passed away to lung cancer. But we should also know how egregiously cruel fur is. Yet so many people, even in 2010, still associate fur with the good life and glamour and many are still smoking (The Wall Street Journal put the percentage of American adults who smoke at about 20%).

Flashforward, 1998-2004, Sex and the City. Fur and smoking are both featured on this marketing powerhouse. Carrie, after having successfully quit smoking seasons earlier, resumes the ugly habit when she lives in Paris in the last few episodes. What about the fur coats she was wearing during the series? Real or fake? Do some of the impressionable women watching know enough to demand faux?

Starlet Kim Cattrall once wore fur and now shuns it, but that hasn't stopped this New York City fur shop from displaying her image.


Doubt the influence of media images like Sex and the City? You can even take bus tours where they point out how you can shop just like Charlotte, Carrie, Miranda and Samantha. The show is a textbook case on the effectiveness of product placement.

Hopefully our society will become more enlightened. Much like a bad horror film, I will never get this video of an animal being skinned alive at a Chinese fur farm out of my mind from PETA. Horror movies are pretend. This act of brutality is not.

So, what do Lucille Ball and Kim Catrall have in common? Their images above are being used to market products associated death. For Lucy and Desi's Philip Morris ads, it has the possibility of causing a slow death by lung cancer. For Kim's image, it's a a certain painful death endured by helpless animals, who come to earth to suffer for our disposable values and wants.

What's the first word that comes into your mind when you see this? I hope not glamorous if you've watched the video.

Learn more about Fur Free NYC. Visit PETA's Fur is Dead site.

Sick. Spotted outside a fur shop on 29th street in New York City.

Like my latest cute top? Oh, thank you. It was $4.

If there's anything good that's come out of this terrible economy, it's the new American thriftiness, and alas, the return of the word "budget" into our lexicon. What an idea...not buying something unless you can afford it?

American women have been marketed to death in the clothing department. While I loved the writing and acting on Sex & the City, what I did not love was its shallow worship of the $500 a pair Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choos. The founders of those companies are undoubtedly laughing all the way to the bank. What's more frightening is the legions of young women they've influenced. Isn't it a bit unnerving to see all these young teen girls with designer handbags? These companies have conned women to obsess over some over-priced, fleeting fashion, and worst of all, fashion that causes needless suffering to innocent animals if it's made of leather, wool, silk, or some other animal-derived product. Learn more at Farm Sanctuary's Veg for Life site.

While there's a lot of talk about "green" clothing (i.e., organic cotton), I'm an avid advocate of the recycling method of thrift store and consignment store shopping. Find one near you through TheThriftShopper.com or ResaleShopping.com. At my my favorite shop, the C.A.T.S. resale shop in Westwood, NJ, I recently scored a $4 peasant top, $8 GAP pencil skirt, and $4 Nine West summer dress. I've also had luck at Fabulous Finds, also in Westwood, where I found almost new grey Chinese Laundry flats for $14 and a black Max Studio dress for $39 that I wear constantly. Best of all, it's all vegan.

The key to successful shopping: frequency. Don't be discouraged if you go in a shop once and don't find anything. Treasures await. But don't be greedy...put things you once loved, but no longer use, back into the universe.

The Green Life, the blog of the Sierra Club, also gave some great tips for buying used.

Of course, then there's always the idea of, gulp, using what you already have in the closet and not consuming so much.

While we're all packing up those winter clothes and bringing out the spring/summer clothes, now is a perfect time to reassess your wardrobe. How about organizing a clothing swap? I've always wanted to do one, and in about two weeks, several of my coworkers and I will be exchanging clothes, handbags and jewelry. I can't wait.

So vow to be to the honorary, unwritten, fifth Sex & the City character, and look stylish, green, vegan and thrifty...all at once.

Mark your calendars:

The C.A.T.S. store will be hosting a green fashion show on Sunday, May 3rd at the RV Community Center in River Vale, NJ, as part of the the Pascack Sustainability Group's GreenFest.

Also at the fair:
*Weigh the benefits of adding solar panels to your home
*Find ways to get green healthy lawns without chemicals
*Run your house more efficiently with less energy
*Save money on home heating
Learn more.