“Oh wow! That is wild,” Alex Jones* says. “Truly amazing stuff!” The twenty-something Londoner is looking at photos of Doja Cat and Jared Leto dressed as cartoon versions of Karl Lagerfeld’s cat Choupette at this year’s Met Gala. “I would be in awe if someone turned up to a meet-up wearing that. The furry fandom often gets quite excited when this kind of content surfaces.” Jones had always been a keen observer of the anthropomorphic subculture, but it wasn’t until recently that he decided to make an official entrance. “I’d say it started with watching cartoons when I was a child, but it really took off with the advent of social media. I’d teeter around online furry spaces just to dip my toes in the water because I wasn’t 100 per cent sure that I wanted to be a part of it,” he says. “I was afraid of being judged.”

Things began to shift during the pandemic, when, in the solitude of his own home, Jones began to experiment with a pair of animal-eared headbands. “I was locked inside and thought, ‘There’s no one here to judge me’ and so I joined a couple of digital communities. It was quite daunting at first but once I made my fursona in avatar form, I immediately wanted a real one.” Jones then did what so many debutantes have done before him: logging onto Google and expressing himself with the phrase “fursuit where to get one”. $900 later, he now moonlights as a hirsute fox with an acid-green mohawk and a pirate’s earring. “It’s one thing to have your character on paper but the suit really helps in the transformation. It’s an escape and it is liberating. I don’t think of my fursona as a separate entity… Rory is an extension of me.”

Part of Jones’ reticence to commit himself to a fursuit was because of the prejudice that collects around adults who dress in ways that diverge from the norm. People like Joe Rogan (who thinks furries use litterboxes) see someone in a strange outfit and assume their sexual tastes to be just as transgressive. Much like punks – who must be into BDSM – or Lolitas – who must engage in teacher-student roleplay – furries become projections of other people’s sexual fears. “A lot of people think being a furry is a kink thing when it isn’t. That’s why people refer to furries being ‘in the closet’ or ‘coming out’.” The language of shame that revolves around the fandom makes the decision to go public as a furry all the more fraught – as if it’s somehow a protected characteristic and not an innocent pastime. 

“A common misconception is that we’re all weirdos, but you’ll find the most diverse group of people within the furry fandom,” Jones adds. “It’s great for neurodivergent people and it’s pro-LGBTQ+ so it’s quite disheartening when you can’t talk to anyone about it.” Samson Baxter – the founder of the suit-making marketplace Fursonafy – agrees: “Everyone assumes it’s a sexual thing so that needs to be cleared up before my good name gets sullied!” Baxter is the first to admit that the fursuit business is not the most innovative space, with most modern costumes being indistinguishable from those that emerged in the 80s. “It’s not like fashion where there are trends,” he says. “It’s its own subgenre of fashion. And for as long as I’ve been doing it, the style has remained consistent. Wolf is overwhelmingly the most predominant fursona, for example, and I don’t have an answer as to why, I guess it’s just a cool animal.”

Below, Alex Jones outlines the steps that go into commissioning a fursuit: from envisioning your chosen fursona and commissioning an artist, to choosing the length of the tail and heading to your first meet-up.

CHOOSE YOUR FIGHTER

“Some people illustrate their character on paper and others commission an artist to draw them a reference sheet. I chose an artist to help design a red wolf called Rory for about $70. I can’t quite articulate why I chose a wolf but something about it just spoke to me. I guess it’s one of the most common fursonas, so I thought that would be the safest bet. I sent in reference images of pre-existing wolves and asked for some small tweaks because I wanted a green mohawk and an earring. I thought ‘Yeah, this is gonna look cool’. You can go quite crazy with your designs, but mine is pretty bland compared to others with camo suits and eye patches. I was quite happy with the final result! Some people have loads of fursonas but I’m happy with just one for now.” 

GIVE IT A HEAD

“So I held onto this reference sheet for a while before I decided to get the fur suit this year. I literally just did a Google search and approached Fursonify. Once the deposit was paid they sent me update images, like the foam base, and then the fur coat, and then the eyes, and eventually it was complete. The head is the most challenging part of the suit, costing me about $900. It starts as a block of foam that’s carved down until you get the correct shape of the head. They then mark out where the different features are going to be, layer fur onto it, and cut out the mesh eyes and teeth. I was guided through every step so that I could interject if there was ever a problem. When the head arrived I was so excited, I just couldn’t wait to wear it out. It’s pretty big and it can get kinda stuffy so if it’s a hot day it’s not particularly fun to wear. But it’s best to meet people in real life because trolls are such a big problem on the Discord servers that furries are now accusing other furries of being trolls. You don’t know who’s trying to ruin it for everyone else.”

GIVE IT A BOD

“I’m planning on getting a bodysuit at a later date because they’re so expensive and I’m still working out how I want it to look. It’s obviously completely customisable and you can even get abs but I think I’ll just get a nice flat stomach with a bushy tail that hangs down a bit. There are different styles of fur suits, too. The most common are the toonie suits with cartoon eyes – those are kind of ‘in’ right now – but you can also get realistic fursuits, which replicate what the animal actually looks like, and then there are kimono fursuits, which are more Japanese in influence with anime-style eyes. The most important aspect of getting a suit made is having a detailed reference sheet. An artist can’t will a written description into existence, so an image of the fursona is essential. One of the things that surprised me about the suit-making process was just how long it takes. A lot of the companies are made up of just one designer so if you’re at the back of the queue you could be waiting one to two years for a suit to come! People are willing to sit it out, though.” 

GO INTO THE WILD

“It’s just about hanging out. Sometimes, at bigger conventions, people sell their art to you in person but most meet-ups are just a way for furries to band together in person. I don’t think the community is necessarily getting smaller but I feel like it’s plateaued. From what I’ve seen, there’s not been an event with an overwhelming amount of furries. When I go to an event I’m just Alex in a fursuit, but others would say they ARE their fursona. People ascribe personal characteristics to their fursonas and create alter-egos but I don’t think of mine as a separate entity. Rory is an extension of me. We all rely a lot more on non-verbal communication, like hand gestures and stuff because your voice is going to be quite muffled under a suit. Some content creators don’t speak in the fursuits at all, they just do subtitles and pure hand movements. I think it’s quite liberating, it’s a different way of communicating.  It’s great for neurodivergent people and the fandom is very pro-LGBT+ too.”

*Some names have been changed