What Price is the Cost of High Fashion? Part 2
Updated: Aug 29
In this second part of the two-part series, we will discuss a few more interesting facts about wildlife and its exploitation by humans.
Question: Is there a silver lining in the story of wildlife exploitation by humans?
Answer: Jewelry made of prehistoric animal bone material, costing $20,000 or more, does exist. However, it is generally not available on the open market.
Modern animal-bone jewelry designed for celebrities does exist, but there is an important surprise: unlike prehistoric fossil-bone jewelry, it rarely reaches the celebrity-luxury threshold of $20,000 or more. The reason is simple—modern bone itself is generally inexpensive; the actual value comes from craftsmanship, precious metals, diamonds, provenance, and the celebrity appeal surrounding the finished piece.
Today, jewelry made from snake vertebrae, cattle, buffalo, crocodile, alligator, deer, fawn, dog, cat, and bird bones, or skulls from chickens and turkeys, is commercially available. However, the prices can be remarkably modest. Real snake-vertebra jewelry commonly sells for about $20–$100, while more elaborate necklaces can reach $285–$450. One designer lists a genuine snake-vertebra necklace at $715.
Modern mammal bone can also be surprisingly affordable. Buffalo-bone pendants carved into animal shapes and mounted in 24-karat gold are currently offered for approximately $6,450–$9,420—expensive, certainly, but still below $20,000. Bird and reptile examples similarly tend to remain in the hundreds rather than tens of thousands of dollars. In the majority of cases, these bones are taken from dead specimens.
So, $20,000-plus modern-bone jewelry is extremely unusual, and there is no convincing evidence of a regularly marketed modern mammal-, bird-, or reptile-bone piece whose price reaches that level solely because of its bone. A jeweler could theoretically create one by adding exceptional diamonds, platinum, or gold, but then the price would be driven overwhelmingly by those materials.
There is another major obstacle: wildlife laws and international trade restrictions. CITES specifically tracks wildlife products, including bones, skeletons, jewelry, and reptile scales, making provenance and legal sourcing critical.
Thus, the modern-bone luxury market exists—but at $20,000, the bone is usually not the luxury; the luxury is everything surrounding it.
The trend leans toward ethically sourced materials, aiming to create beauty from, as creators describe it, "decay."
Did You Know?
Although inexpensive modern animal-bone jewelry is sold on the open market, sadly, there is still a thriving illegal bone-jewelry market, in spite of strict rules and controls.
This modern illegal jewelry is made of bones from endangered or threatened animals, birds, and reptiles. Countless animals are even poached for this purpose.
Illegal animal parts used in exotic jewelry primarily include elephant ivory, sea turtle shell, and big cat claws and teeth.
In summary, the illegal wildlife trade is an estimated $7.8 to $23 billion global black market, driven by luxury fashion as well as traditional medicine and status symbolism. The five most prominent illegally traded wildlife hides, bones, and body parts include rhino horn, tiger bone, elephant ivory, pangolin scales, and cheetah or leopard fur.
Pangolin scales cost $350–$1,000 per kg on the black market. Leopard and cheetah pelts/bones fetch $1,00–$3,000 on the black market, tiger bone costs $10,000 per kg, a rhinoceros horn will fetch $60,000–$65,000, and so on.
The beautiful clouded leopard inhabits the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal and Bhutan, northeastern India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indochina, and southern China. The estimated number in the wild is about 10,000. Its pelt and bones fetch several thousand dollars.
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