Feel easy in your skin?

Fur is back - in the headlines, on the catwalk, in the glossy magazines. But should it be back in your wardrobe? We weigh into the debate...

Is fur back? When did it ever go away? Every autumn (and most springs as well - fur bikinis, anyone?), designers fill their catwalk with paeans to the pelts of dead animals. Shaved chinchilla, knitted fox, dip-dyed mink, glossy astrakhan (fur from unborn lambs) - every permutation of pelt is available, if only you have the stomach to wear it. And increasingly, it seems, women have.

The British might love their dogs, their cats and their horses, but for many nationalities a fur coat is still the ultimate rite of passage for the rich bitch. Nothing screams money like a mink.

We've all seen images of New York's hip-hop glitterati dripping in fur, while fashion's front row has long been awash with it. Despite repeated letters from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), American Vogue's Anna Wintour and French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld are unashamed fur wearers. But are the British on the turn, too?

The September issues of Tatler and Harpers and Queen both carry fashion stories featuring fur, while British Vogue's September issue carries a six-page advertorial sponsored by the IFTF (International Fur Trade Federation). None of these magazine editors was available for comment.

British designers Matthew Williamson, Clements Ribeiro and Julien Macdonald all worked with fur this autumn, while Kate Moss, Jade Jagger, Sienna Miller and Jemima Khan are just some of the high-profile London It girls who have been photographed wearing fur in recent months. Bad news for PETA: great news for SAGA, the Scandinavian fur promoter that works closely with the fashion industry to encourage new product development.

It is these new fur techniques which have largely contributed to fur's resurgence this autumn. Today's furs are lighter than the ones your grandma used to wear, and are finding favour with a younger crowd. Prada has already seen unprecedented demand for its first autumn shipment, which includes a crystal-embroidered mink coat retailing at £18,000; and its swakhara coat (a type of lamb) is a best-seller. A grey mink jacket costing £5,000 and an astrakhan cape costing £1,000 are all, according to a spokesman, "flying out of the shop".

Louis Vuitton, meanwhile, is doing a brisk trade in fitch-lined tartan blanket coats, for £7,600 (fitch is fashionspeak for ferret), while Dior and Fendi both report a roaring trade. Well, they would. Accurate figures are notoriously difficult to come by, with pro and anti organisations manipulating figures at will.

The high street is less gung-ho. Topshop, Hennes, Gap and Marks & Spencer all have an anti-fur policy, although at the beginning of the season Zara was stocking rabbit jackets and rabbit-trimmed coats. These have since been withdrawn.

After racism and anorexia, fur is the most emotive issue in the fashion world. For every animal-rights campaigner who speaks passionately of bludgeoned seals, asphixyated foxes and anally electrocuted minks (well, why shy away from the gruesome details), there are pro-fur lobbyists who insist that most animals are farmed responsibly and slaughtered humanely. "Most" can never be "all", surely, but it is not for me to preach.

You can find plenty of preaching on www.peta.org and www.iftf.com. Now, has anyone else noticed all the lovely tweed in the shops this season?