Sometimes "gross" is just not strong enough a word! Apparently this outfit, made entirely of cows' and yaks' nipples recently sparked outrage at Paris's fashion week.

If you ask me, it's udderly disgusting! (sorry couldn't help myself) I can completely understand why people would be outraged by a ridiculous dress made of cows' nipples. What I still struggle to understand is why people aren't equally outraged when coats are made out of the rest a cows' skin -- which she needs just as much as her nipples.

The designer has defended her work saying, "I create fashion using material that would otherwise end up on the scrap heap. What I am doing is recycling. The people criticising are clearly clueless about the amount of leather wasted on a daily basis."

What is a real waste is the fact that animals have their lives cut short for the sake of leather at all -- especially with so many alternatives! And fortunately we're not alone in thinking this. While in Sydney recently, Toby Maguire (a vegan -- woo!) sent back his complimentary Mercedes (with leather interiors) because he didn't want to drive around, sitting on the skin of a dead animal during his stay in Australia.

They say cows have a great memory and can even hold a grudge for years. What a grudge they must hold for the way many of their bovine buddies are killed for their skin. For example, did you know that in India (where much leather comes from) poor families may sell their cows on the agreement that they be properly looked after, only for the animals to then be forced to march for huge distances -- their tails broken and chilli rubbed in their eyes to keep them moving -- to get to slaughterhouses where they can be killed.

This one's going on my 'un-wish list'. When you're deciding what to get me for Christmas, you can rule out anything made from cows' nipples, or any other part of a cow.

Have you seen any outfits that can match this cow nipple dress for being ridiculous and obscene?

I don't know about you, but the idea of having a dead animal draped around my shoulders to keep warm, or worse, to make a 'fashion statement', makes me want to recoil in disgust, or more to the point: puke!

On a recent shopping trip I happened to spot a number of rabbit fur vests in shop windows--at least I think they were rabbit fur . But with dog and cat fur often deliberately mislabelled and imported as 'rabbit', you can never be sure.

What is up with this resurgence of fur?! At the recent Melbourne Spring Fashion Week there were a disturbing number of attendees in the crowd wearing this season's "on-trend" of brightly coloured fur.

Even Aussie expat, supermodel Jess Hart has been seen walking around the streets of New York in a fur coat that I'm sure looked much better on the animal it was taken from.

And to top it all off, the latest episode of Australia's Next Top Model again featured fur to the disgust of viewers and even the show's own judges. ANTM copped it last year for the same tasteless faux pas so they have no excuse for not using faux fur this time around.

We know there is nothing fashionable about the cruel slaughter of animals for fur. Fur farms, which often use killing methods such as drowning, anal electrocution and skinning alive are kept in business through the demand for fur coats, gloves, hats, fur trimming at the cost of thousands of animals' lives.

What do you think -- How can we communicate to these "fashionistas" that animals need their fur on their own backs, not ours? With so many cosy cruelty-free outfits at our fingertips, haven't we evolved past killing animals for coats?!

(Isn't this ad by Animal Friends Croatia great! We found it via Osocio.org)

ps. Have you made the Pledge to Wear Your Own Skin yet?

The fashion world sure has a lot to answer for. From innocent mistakes like handbags the size of suitcases to skyscraper platform shoes to the less forgivable things like fur coats and mink eyelashes. But whoever came up with the idea for fur coats for dogs must have a screw loose!

Unbelievable but true, a Danish 'fashion' house has decided it's not bad enough that humans wear the skin of another species, but now they want dogs to be wearing another animal's fur over the top of their own!

The company says that "it can easily be worn all year round". Correct me if I'm wrong, but do they not already have a fur coat that they wear all year round?

The company have encouraged their customers to "put the health of the dog before anything else. Situations where it is too hot for the dog to wear fur can occur." It's a shame they don't have the same concern for the health of the animals in fur farms!

Fur is an ugly business! On fur farms foxes, rabbits, minks, cats and even dogs are forced to live in tiny cages, before being killed - often in the most brutal ways imaginable - anal electrocution, drowning, gassing, or even being skinned alive! Anyone who has seen Earthlings will remember the live fox, who had been skinned and left to slowly die in a dumpster, without even the warmth of her own skin for comfort.

Skinning one animal to make another 'more fashionable' takes the cake for being tasteless, cruel and so unnecessary!

Is it just me, or has this fashion house gone mad? wdyt?

Have you heard of mink eyelash extensions? Neither had I until recently. But apparently they're all the rage - or at least that's what the people selling them say. Personally they just make me enraged!

Ok, so you're not likely to catch me with eyelash extensions anyway - mostly, cause I don't think I could pull this look off (and yes that is Johnny Depp). But seriously, there's absolutely nothing attractive about glueing animal fur to your face. Don't get me wrong, I think mink fur is nice - when it's on a mink.

I've noticed that many of the companies selling these extensions boast that they don't kill the minks. According to one site they "harvest" the lashes "by gently brushing live animals." That all sounds well and good, until you realise that must mean that these animals are forced to spend their entire lives on fur farms.

You only have to take a glimpse inside a mink farm to know that it's cruel. Minks are solitary animals who roam over a habitat of several kilometres. Yet in fur farms they are locked in a cage the size of an open newspaper, surrounded by other minks. This is an incredibly stressful environment for them and can even lead to cannibalism and self mutilation. I stumbled across this film about fur farms in Sweden recently (Warning: this is not for the faint hearted!).

Wanting to look beautiful is one thing. But condemning an animal to a life of misery to have longer lashes is an ugly thing for anyone to do. Having said that, sadly the truth is that most people splurging on mink eyelash extensions probably don't even realise what goes into making them. If they did, I'm sure they'd buy synthetic lash extensions instead!

That's my rant off my chest. What silly fashion trends bug you?

Want to kick off the new year in style? Well we've got just the thing! Read on and you could win a specky new treat for your feet.

We all know that Macbeth make rad shoes. For starters, they were co-founded by Tom DeLonge, of Blink 182 fame. Not to mention they've got musicians like Mike Dirnt of Green Day designing moshpit stompers for them. And last but definitely not least, most of their shoes are leather free. So you can strut in style whilst leaving the cows to be cows.

We were chuffed to learn recently that one of our fave people, Aussie guitar maestro Jona Weinhofen from Bring Me the Horizon (+ ex-Bleeding Through, + ex-I Killed the Prom Queen) has got on board with Macbeth to promote their vegan range.

So to celebrate all things stylish, cruelty-free and that rock your socks off, we've got 2 pairs of Wallister Macbeths to give away! Just check out our exclusive interview with Jona (from back in his Bleeding Through days), and then to enter leave a comment to tell us how you plan to step up and make a difference in 2011 (winners will be announced in mid January).

Who saw the latest episode of Australia's Next Top Model? The contestants were made to wear fur! Real fur! And the host even had the stupidity to say that fur was making a comeback! What the faux?

This is about as irresponsible as you can get (from a channel that calls itself FOX!), especially when it is clear that the majority of people in the fashion world have no idea where fur comes from and the awful ways in which it gets from an animal's back to their grotesque coats …

I love the feel of my dog's fur under my fingers as I pat her, knowing her fur is right where it should be …But obviously, not all animals are as pampered as my pooch. This is the 21st century and it's amazing that some people are still of the opinion that the rightful place of dogs' fur (or rabbit, raccoon, mink, fox etc) is the outer lining of their coat! These people have blood on their hands …

Did you know that Perth's very own Harmony and Lawson actually want you to believe that the fur they use is 'cruelty-free'? Clearly Harmony Douglas has never ripped it off the back of a living breathing animal herself.

'Cruelty free fur' – it's an oxymoron. So don't ever buy into it if you see it on a label, or you run the risk of being called a moron yourself (not unlike certain hosts on ANTM)!

Thankfully people are staring to wake up. Israel is currently voting on a bill to ban any trade in fur. And there are now so many alternatives to fur, I really can't see why anyone would wear it, even if they do think it looks good (which is another debate altogether!).

Jump onto the ANTM forum and let them know you won't be watching a show that sanctions animal cruelty. You can also make comments on their Facebook page.

And don't forget to go faux yourself! I mean that in the nicest possible way ;)

No doubt I’m not alone when I say I like stylish clothes. And one thing I love about faux fashion is that it not only looks hot, it’s a great way to show others that you don’t need to be cruel to be cool (and in fact there’s nothing less attractive than someone draped in the skin of a dead animal!).

One of my fave wardrobe additions of late is my faux leather jacket from Casual Guy (pictured below). When I’m wearing this bad boy and speaking up for animals, I often have people say something like “But you wear leather, don’t you?” and I think BAM! 'time to save lives' and then I respond: “Thanks for asking! Actually no, I don’t wear animal skins. I was horrified when I found out cows that die for leather often have their tails broken and chilli rubbed in their eyes before they are killed. Oh this jacket, it’s fake leather. Have you ever worn fake leather before?”

Here are a few other discoveries I just had to add to my wardrobe:

These 100% non-leather shoes (above) are from Spendless

There's plenty of non-leather belts out there like this Hurley belt made of PVC

If you want something real bad, just keep looking. I wanted one of these jackets for ages, and I finally found a non-wool jacket at Dangerfield.

So how do you strut your hot stuff for the animals? Have you got an awesome tip for compassionate fashion? Leave a comment.