There’s a popular joke about the furry community that Tyto Aeryn, an artist known for her ethereal furry fashion on TikTok, tells me on a call: “You can call a furry anything, but you can’t call them broke.” I had half-expected her to join the call in her signature barn owl fursuit and dramatic corsetry, but instead she remained off camera, an owl serving as her profile picture as she told me she had saved more than $1,000 for her realistic fursuit. “If you’re going for a full body fursuit, they can go up to 20 thousand dollars easy,” she says. Something furries and fashion enthusiasts have in common is spending large amounts of money. 

Historically, the furry community has not exactly been thought of as fashion’s front row. But Tyto Aeryn is part of a new generation of furries posting fit pics and outfit videos in realistic fur heads, reaching far beyond furry corners of the internet. Needless to say, her videos showed up on my For You page, despite the fact I had never come across furry content before. For some, the aim is to infiltrate the fashion influencer world, while others have taken to DJing. Crucially, many of these fashionable furry influencers wear partial fursuits, allowing them to style their fursonas through coquette, punk or whatever other aesthetic they choose.

In the age of the algorithm, seeing a young girl wearing a mini skirt and a deer head is no longer as shocking. The likes of German DJ horsegiirL gaining popularity has made a pathway for young women, especially, to try to take the furry community mainstream – in the right outfit, of course. Still, there’s a lot of discourse and infighting in the community, says the New York furry DJ Doecaine. “But when you go to real-life events and get to meet people fursuit to fursuit, it’s a massive, incredibly diverse community,” she says. 

Ahead, we spoke to three up-and-coming furry influencers about personal style. 

TYTO AERYN, 24, NEW YORK

“The first time I ever wore a fursuit was April 24, 2026 – so about a month ago. I’ve always been in the community, but I never took the leap into purchasing and commissioning a fur suit because I was still in college.

“Playing the game Animal Jam planted the initial seed that I was a furry, when I was around 11. That was the first moment when I was like, ‘I want to be an animal and run around on all fours’. As I got older, I realised it was actually a thing, and not just me having weird thoughts. When I finally graduated, I didn’t have an excuse anymore. 

“I would describe myself as an artist more than anything because my actual style is the opposite. On the street, I’m in the most basic outfit you can imagine, like some skinny jeans, shoes and maybe a bag. But there’s a part of me that was always drawn to that very dramatic Galliano intense maximalism. I never really felt comfortable wearing that outside, but having the fursuit is an outlet for me to wear what my dream wardrobe would be if we lived in Game of Thrones. 

“Everyone in the community is so welcoming and creative. It’s intimidating. But the newer generation is combining not only the art aspect of this community but fashion as well. Furries don’t always have the best name, and I want more people to realise we’re extremely nice and talented – to give us a chance.”

DOECAINE, 23, NEW YORK

“I’ve been a furry for a very long time, around 10 years. My involvement in the community was limited to illustrations, so I would spend all my free time drawing anthropomorphic animals and posting them on various websites. Doe is my first fursuit head. I got her when I was 22. Putting her on for the first time was really cool. It was fulfilling a dream I had for a very long time; my favourite part was looking in the mirror as an extension of my own body.

“Growing up, I was kind of lost within my gender, but as I got older, I wanted to really reclaim my femininity for myself. Doe are very graceful and elegant creatures, often seen as symbols of femininity. I’m a little clumsy and have never felt like I've aligned with womanhood very well, so a doe resonated with me because it embodies traits that are different from my previous self. As I’ve worn her more and more and developed my project, I’ve become so much more like her, and in a way, she's also become more like me. 

“Outside of the suit, you could probably just find me wearing random streetwear, a t-shirt or a hoodie, with a pair of beat-up sneakers. I’ve always blended into the background as a person. Wearing the head allows me to experiment with styles I would never really wear, and my wardrobe has changed as a result, too. When I wear her, I’m usually styled in a lot of skirts and dresses, vibrant colours. I don’t really like elaborate outfits for myself, but I appreciate them when others wear them, and I find that she wears them well.

“The furry community is majority male, and also very queer. But I struggled to connect with all of the masculine representations. I think the rise in online content is helping to de-stigmatise how people view the fandom, too. Life is hard enough; I don’t get the point of being mean to someone who’s just expressing themselves. I think it’s really beautiful to have an alter ego and to express yourself so creatively. In some ways, it’s escapism.”

AISHA-MUTT, 18, GLASGOW

“I started wearing fursuits in 2023 when I fell extremely unwell with Bell’s palsy, and it left me with severe nerve damage and synkinesis in my face. I didn’t leave the house much and had to tape my eye down. I struggled with nerve damage in my ears, which made hearing extremely difficult and uncomfortable, so I wanted to occupy myself with a hobby that I could really indulge, and that’s where I found making fursuits. Aisha is the most recent fursuit project I’ve made.

“I’ve always been really ‘out there’ from a young age. I knew that I never really cared about gender norms. I’ve always dressed in more masculine clothes just because that’s what really makes me feel like myself. I think everyone, at least once in their life, has made a persona of who they want to be rather than who they are, subconsciously or not. Also, who doesn’t think a leopard wearing a niche band tee and baggy jeans is dope?

“You’ll hear the classic rumours about how the fandom is a massive kinky sex thing. The fandom itself came and grew from kink in the 80s, but it was also a safe space for queer and homosexual people during the Aids epidemic, when they had nowhere and no one to turn to and really relied on that connection to people with similar problems and experiences.”