An Open Letter to Murmures Dr Rubans
Hey, Murmures, we need to talk. However, since I'm restricted from your comments section, I can't talk on your platform, so we're going to talk on mine. This letter is coming from a genuine place of concern. You've been putting a lot of effort into launching your new brand, and I want to applaud you for that. I'm writing to you because I think that you are about to make decisions that are going to be very damaging to your brand.
You've posted one video and one still image of your textile (screenshots above) showcasing "100% wool faux faun fur," and claiming that this is a non-hide, cruelty-free product. I do not believe that the information you are saying there is true.
In your comments section, you accused me of spreading misinformation about this subject. I think I have the right to clarify my name in this subject. It's probably unfair for me to just say, "this is definitely shearling," which is what I'd said in your comment section. I can't confirm that my statement is 100% true. So, I'm going to say something that I do know is 100% true, and provable. I have years extensive experience with synthetic furs and significant experience in natural furs. Nearly every shearling product I have ever seen produced from dead sheep hide, as well as every tanned fur hide I've ever seen, looks exactly like that on the back. I have seen no synthetic fur, even fur with a rubber coating on the back, that looks like your pictures. I have consulted people who know more about animal skins, including people whose job is managing and maintaining historical collections for museums, as well as people whose job includes differentiating synthetic furs from natural furs. They also agree with what I see. I don't have your textile on hand (and neither do you, actually), so I can't say with 100% what it is or is not. What I can say is that every piece of evidence that you have provided says the exact same thing when looked at by an expert's eye. All evidence say pictures that your supplier send you are pictures of animal hide. It's not misinformation just because it disagrees with you, so please watch how you throw that word around.
I could go into details about what things informs that decision (primarily the flat locking, the way that the fur wraps around the edge of the skin, the texture of the back, and the overall shape of the piece, and the fact that generally rubber-backed furs don't have the rubber backing applied at this point in the process) but this really isn't about you being wrong about this fabric. Sorry, not to spread misinformation here. It's about your statements disagreeing with all of the photo evidence you've provided when it's examined by experts in the field. But I'm not writing to you to prove what your textile is or is not.
This is about your brand reputation. This is about the trust that you want from your audience. This is about the fact that, at the end of the day, you're going to want people in your audience to pay you money. You throw around a lot of phrases like "sustainable," "cruelty free," "natural and non-synthetic" (btw please prove that your fur's alleged rubber backing is natural rubber and not a synthetic), And those are all admirable things to want to be. Those are good morals to base a brand on. However, all of those claims are only good marketing for as long as your audience believes that they are true. You have two different ways to prove that they're true. One is to provide documentation from a well-respected agency showing that your statements have been independently proven to be true.
The other thing that you can do, in the absence of this, is to make sure that your brand has a trustworthy reputation. You will eventually need to prove your statements by an outside source, but while you're just developing products, you can go for a while if people just trust your brand to do the right thing when it's the correct time. One of the ways that you can maintain a trustworthy reputation is to demonstrate a dedication to doing everything in your power to verify these things on your own. This includes verifying things that you have doubts and concerns about, but it also includes verifying things that your audience has doubts about. At the end of the day, they're buying your product, so if they don't have trust in you, they won't support you.
I know that you're throwing around eco-friendly and world-conscious terminology because that's something that matters to you. But you're also using these terms to get other people to like your product. Your whole instagram account is marketing for your brand, and you bring these terms up over and over. Your problem is that the people who care about cruelty-free products, and sustainable products, and natural products want proof of those things. Those are actually three of the marketing genres that demand proof more than any other marketing subset. If you're catering to that customer's market, you need to prove that you're providing the product that you're selling, because part of what they're buying is peace of mind that it wasn't a harmful product.
What you are asking people to buy is so specialty and niche, catering to a subset of the EGL community that is already a subset of a larger fashion world. You cannot afford to alienate any customers right now. When you lose a customer's trust, you might never get it back. You lost an incredible amount of trust with your whole bioacetate debacle, and you haven't addressed that. You've had people come into the comments on your bioacetate post with proof that bioacetate is still a plastic fiber, and you've either ignored them or told them that they can't hold you accountable to the marketing you've provided because English is your second language. You lost trust when that happened, and you've done nothing to try to earn it back. We're seeing the same situation again with this everything-in-my-extensive-professional-knowledge-tells-me-it's-shearling situation. People are expressing concerns about if your product aligns with the morals that you've consistently said your company has. You have again said that the issue is that English is not your first language, but you've made no evidence to rectify this language barrier. You are insistently denying the evidence people are providing, providing no proof yourself, and then accusing people who disagree with you of trying to sabotage you. I am not trying to sabotage you. I don't think anyone is trying to sabotage you. I think that you have an audience that you have promised one thing to, and delivered another thing. Now you won't do anything about why people who've been lied to (intentionally or not) feel like they've been lied to.
When you lose a customer's trust, you don't always get it back. When you lose a customer's trust, and then do nothing to try to address that lost of trust, you will never get it back. I know you just hit a milestone follower number on instagram. I am saying this out of a place of concern and because I don't know if you have realized this: I think a lot of your instagram followers are not following you to support you, but so that they can watch you crash and burn. The lоlita fashion community loves watching arrogant people fail, so please address this issue, because, "You're wrong and trying to make me fail, and I will not in any way address that your disbelief in my claims could be valid," looks pretty arrogant from an outside perspective.
Sorry this is long. I have a lot to say and I'm just like this. This is not about wool, or sheep hide, or cruelty free, or whatever. This is about the fact that, when you are a brand and your audience has an overwhelming question with the product you sell, you need to actually address that on their level. You need to prove it. You need to meet them at their concern, and not make any overconfident statements guaranteeing 100% truth when you aren't able to prove any of your claims. If you have doubt that what you're selling will be in line with your company's morals, you need to take down anything promising that. When you make a claim that you can't prove, when you make a promise that you can't keep, you will lose your audience. You will lose your credibility. You will lose your business. It's not about what your suppliers have told you. It's not about what you personally know. It's about proving to your audience that you know what you know. It's about proving to your audience that you take your morals seriously. It's about proving to your audience that supporting your brand is actually supporting its mission. Your cape list price is going to be $350, and comparable indie brand capes on the market are 1/3rd that cost. You say that the reason your cape costs so much is due to "we only use natural fabrics and our custom deer print costs a lot." You absolutely have to, beyond the shadow of a doubt, show your audience that you honestly care about being correct about those claims. This is a time for showing, not telling.
Take your post down. Don't get me wrong, I've loved scrolling through the comments and seeing the drama, but for the sake of your brand, take your posts about your fur and your bioacetate down. Put up new posts about accountability to your mission. Put up new posts that start with, "I've heard your concerns, and to address these concerns, here is what I'm doing." Admit that you could be wrong. No one will trust you until you start listening to feedback. No one will shop with you if they don't trust you.
You have a lot of potential. You've worked hard to get where you are. Don't wreck all of it just because you don't want to admit that you're wrong.
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