Fur Coats, Fursuits and Fabrications: Kael on Fashion and the Furry Community
For years, furries have been labelled as others. Whether it be through negative stereotypes, misunderstanding or plain ignorance, the furry community is always the easiest choice for the butt of a joke. But recently, the perception is changing — and at the forefront of the wave is Kael.
Fashion and fursuits have more overlap than most would realize. Like a couture dress, fursuits are custom and individual pieces that take painstaking craftsmanship, time and skill to manufacture. They express emotions or aspects of the owner’s personality in the same way clothing does. Kael is one of the biggest examples of the convergent nature of the fashion and furry subcultures.
Kael sports large gray ears to stay alert in the wild—and to listen to the latest Cardi album. His massive blue claws might be used for hunting prey or, more likely, for opening Monster Energy cans—his traditional carnivorous diet. Neon green fur helps him stay warm in sub-zero temperatures, sometimes paired with a leather jacket for extra flair. He's the first canine you'll meet rocking 12cm platform boots. You might have seen him headbanging at a rave, roaming the streets of Tokyo, or unboxing that special item you've been eyeing for years. He’s the kind of furry who’ll teach you how to pull off the perfect outfit to turn heads.
Short-form media has made fashion content more accessible than ever, heightening the importance of personal style with each scroll. For those browsing their feeds, Kael’s bold, creative outfits stand out as some of the most distinctive.
Self-expression is often championed by influencers as a key to being fashionable. In that spirit, Kael might just be one of the most stylish creatures—walking, trotting, prowling—across the Earth. Despite his extensive collection of vintage and archive clothes, he never takes his TikToks or Instagram Reels too seriously—he’s just being himself. Kael makes it clear: furriness, like fashion, is simply another vibrant form of self-expression.
But that’s enough from us about the furry community. To provide a deeper dive into the intersection of the fashion and furry community, we sat down on a call with Kael himself to explain.
Hi Kael, nice to meet you! For those of us who are unaware, who are you, and what do you do?
I’m Kael, and I’m a dog on the internet. I enjoy self-expression, I’m a member of the furry fandom, and I guess I’ve garnered a reputation for well-coordinated outfits. But first and foremost, I’m just a dumb dog, y’know?
It’s pretty clear that you are one-of-a-kind with how you mix these two subcultures. Could you tell us which came first, the fashion or the fur?
Honestly, I wouldn’t say that I’m one of a kind. I think there’s a lot of furries who are doing interesting things in the context of fashion. I’m just the one to hit the For You page for those outside the furry fandom. We just did the largest furry convention in the world, and I helped organize a runway event. There are a lot of people who are in this intersection, and the number is definitely growing!
Personally, my interest in fashion developed from a need for self-expression. But I’ve also been obsessed with anthropomorphic animals my entire life — originally I was just drawing these characters - so I’d say being a furry probably came first. Fashion is more or less an extension of my self-expression, so they’ve always been very intertwined.
Going back to what you mentioned about you being the one to hit the algorithms: what do you think of it, and why do you think it is?
It’s a unique position to be in — it's very forward-facing. As for why, I think people like the silhouettes and shape language I choose. Of course, I also wear a lot of hard-to-access designer clothing. Production samples, stuff like that — people get obsessed with the furry with the clothing collection. It’s almost like a magic show — what’s he going to pull out of the hat next? Aside from that, I think a lot of people see me as having a very unique take on personal style. So I have quite a large non-furry audience just from my fashion output alone.
Imagine a time traveller from 100 years ago meets you. How would you explain the furry fandom to them?
I’d say the furry fandom is a beautiful form of self-expression. A fursuit itself is a garment, well constructed, hand-sewn, and a form of expression. Ultimately, fashion is a way to show how you feel and furry is an extreme form of expressive therapy. As an actor might perform in a stage play, someone can walk around as a character that they identify with.
There are tons of misconceptions surrounding the furry fandom. Could you set the record straight on a couple of the biggest ones?
There’s the big misconception that all furries are losers. But a lot of people don’t realize that these costumes are very expensive and time consuming to make. You’d be surprised at how many furries have well-off careers, and are genuine contributors to society. Not that anyone who chooses an alternative lifestyle is a loser — fundamentally, it's a hobby that is a beautiful form of expression. Unfortunately, a lot of people are willing to whale on the fandom as a result of that.
Another misconception is that the furry fandom is entirely sexual. Now, I won’t deny that there are people who have a strong sexual component to their membership and see fursuits as a fetishized garment. There are sexual undertones for some, and there are those who get super freaky with it and honestly, that’s fire! But there’s also people who are into it for the craftsmanship of costumes, to be a fantastic dancer, or just to be themselves.
One of the best things about the community is that I can go anywhere in the world, and I’ll have friends there. Most of my friends in the furry community are amazing, interesting people with their own lives and stories. I find the perception of furries as all weird, stinky losers to be the farthest thing from reality.
From your outfits, it’s pretty clear that you’ve been in the fashion sphere for a hot minute. Could you tell us about your fashion inspirations?
I’d have to say Studio Trigger/Gainax character design. How they create these pointy, flared silhouettes, and how they portray these characters. Personally, at the end of the day, it's about looking like an anime character. I think that’s how a lot of people in our generation got into fashion. This recent revival of Japanese archive fashion comes from kids almost deifying the style of Death Note.
I do also find the way Demna presents his clothing to be really unique and interesting. In terms of ‘fashion people’....honestly, five years ago I was a Bloody Osiris hater, but looking back I think he did a lot for the internet fashion space. Among contemporary musicians, Young Thug had some really killer outfits, and I’d say he's the best dressed rapper. People say Carti, but Thug was putting that shit on before it was a cultural requirement to be dripped out — so I’d say he’s the GOAT.
Fursuit or not, you stand out in a crowd. Do you find you dress yourself differently with and without your fursuit?
Yes and no. I would say the only thing I have to consider with the fursuit is that the proportion of my head changes a lot, and I have to build around that.
In my non-furry fashion world, I wear headgear. Scarves, hoods, all sorts of different things. With a fursuit, I can’t really do that. I have to factor in that hoods don’t really have any functionality, and silhouettes can’t be broken up by my face — the fursuit itself minimizes everything else, so I really have to maximize the rest of my body, whether it be through flared pants, platform boots and stronger shoulders so the dimensions balance out.
Otherwise, I dress mostly the same.
Picture this: your wardrobe is burning down, and you can only save three pieces. What are they, and why?
My first big fashion piece, a Vetements AW16 T.F.D bomber - the oversized version. It was my first big high-fashion grail. I got it for a ridiculously cheap price, and I was broke at the time - so it holds a lot of sentimental value to me: having a piece that you’ve obsessed over for so long and finally being able to own it.
The reason for saving my next answer is a little more direct. It’s a Vetements ‘Hello Boys’ Priest Coat - that shit is hella expensive! So it’d set me back a lot if that got burnt down.
Finally, the least surprising answer: my full fursuit. It’s a handmade, made-to-measure garment! So, two Vetements pieces and my fursuit. [laughs]
You’ve been to Tokyo before — how did you feel about the city compared to the West?
I’m not living and working as a Japanese national, so I love it. I understand that the aspects of Tokyo are different when you are in the work environment there - I spent a month doing so, and I would personally never go back.
For fashion, there’s no place more interesting for subcultures to be explored, reinterpreted and defied. Subcultures and trends aren’t necessarily born in Tokyo as they were in the 90s and 00s with all the underground designers, but subculture is still definitely perfected in Tokyo. Of course, there are still trends that originate in Harajuku, like Jirai-kei or Angel Girls - and those are great - but I think the best part is how Japan takes Western developments, reinterprets them, and makes them more coherent and playful.
Styling, accessorization…all these things are elevated in Tokyo. I think the radical personal style of Tokyo people is a reaction to the strict conservativeness of society, and it makes for a really unique incubation chamber. And of course, the food is just better, and the trains run on time.
A lot of people aren’t aware that there’s a large furry community in Japan. How was your experience with that?
Yeah, there is and it’s different! It’s called Kemono (獣) — it's similar — interestingly, it developed independently of but at the same time as the furry fandom. How Kemono treats performance is distinct to Western furries — in the West, it's about self-expression. But in the East, people are entirely committed to playing a character, like theatre. It's such an interesting and different perspective, I’d distinguish it as separate from, but in the same vein as furry.
What’s one thing you wish people would know about furries, and one thing they should know about fashion?
There’s a lot of cool craftsmanship that is pushing what is possible in so many fields. It’s all encompassed in the furry subculture, ranging from visual arts to music — there’s a lot of underground furry musicians who are making crazy stuff. Shout out Salv [Salv], her stuff is insane. I saw her live a couple days ago…out of the hundreds of raves, concerts and events I’ve been to and living in Berlin for half a decade, her’s was the best I’ve seen in my life.
For fashion, authenticity is the only thing that matters. Anytime I see an authentic outfit, it doesn’t matter whether it's objectively good or bad in the eyes of…say, a fashion critic. So long as you’re wearing things you enjoy, you have drip. It’s all about portraying and representing yourself in the way you want.
What's a question you wish everyone would ask you?
Where do I see this subculture in 5 years? Because I could give an hour-long answer.
Could you give us a minute-long answer?
The furry subculture is growing rapidly thanks to the power of the internet. I really think that as color is draining out of modern society, and with modern developments of being in a colored animal costume, furry just seems like a natural counter-cultural movement — a movement against the stale and sad reality that is late-stage capitalism. In a lot of ways, although fashion is very commercial - a lot of the furry subculture is born out of the same counter-cultural movements as fashion
So in five years, I see the furry fandom as having massively grown and caused a serious social shift in terms of how people engage with the online world. Because it’s essentially taking the idea of a digital avatar and transcribing it into reality - and I think a lot of younger people identify more with a digital presence than any previous generation. It won’t just be something niche, it’ll be a lot more represented.
I think we are already starting to see just that: a sort of hybridization of furry with people’s own specific interests. Like me with fashion, some with lifting, others with cooking. There’s people who bench 225 for ten reps, people who cook five-star gourmet meals - all in a full fursuit! In this world, it’s very hard to have joy in an innocent sense because we are constantly overloaded with information. So when we see a funny animal do something, our day is instantly improved!
All this means that as time progresses, the furry community will really grow.
text and interview by Christian Wan
