Warming Up To Fur

By Belinda Luscombe

One evening last month, in the barn of a farm in Bellville, Ohio, about a dozen fox farmers stood around, hands in belts, watching a video. On the screen, a bevy of thin, gorgeous, haughty women strode down the catwalk, all wearing something furry. It was a compilation of high-fashion shows from Milan, and while the farmers were more bemused than impressed, that tape may represent their best hope for a lucrative future.

The fashion industry, never a business that espouses moderation, has re-embraced fur with a vengeance. Fur, always a cyclical business, had its best years in the mid-'80s but in the early '90s was hit hard by a combination of warm winters, a recession, a luxury tax and a vehement and well-orchestrated anti-fur movement, all of which drove home the message that fur was a distasteful and excessive luxury. But as with most things in fashion, the trend faded. In 1985, 45 designers were using fur. This year that figure is closer to 200. Giorgio Armani, Badgley Mischka and Carolina Herrera showed fur in their fall '98 collections either for the first time or after a long break, and fashion's current chief recipient of slavish admiration, John Galliano, did a whole fur line. (Oddly though, he outfitted his models to look like prostitutes.) In the early '90s when fashion magazines did fur shoots, the stylists asked that their names not be used. This year, every fashion magazine worth its scent strips had fur photos in its October issue, and W even used its contributors' section to champion the stylist of its fur spread. Fur is out of storage.

Mind you, the fashionistas are not draping their pages with the type of fur your granny wore. Designers have decided that since luxury is this season's watchword, fur is a staple for everything from evening wear to accessories. "I look at fur today as I look at a fabric," says Valentino. "There is no difference. I use tiny borders of mink as a ruffle in my wool suitings." From trim, fur has migrated to sportswear. Versace has a mink-lined biker boot, Prada has a mink vest, Fendi and others have fur skirts, Michael Kors has silver fox leg warmers and, for the ultimate in dressing down and up at the same time, Jean Paul Gaultier is offering a fur-lined denim jacket. Fur is targeted to such a young market that there are even furs for children.

It remains to be seen whether this flurry of furriness will revive what has been a dwindling industry. In 1988 there were more than 1,000 mink farms in the U.S. Last year there were about half that number. While some of this is consolidation, Evans Inc., the retailer considered a bellwether of the fur industry, has lost money in seven of the past 10 years. And its share price, which hit $13 in 1987, was still less than a dollar last month.

No one in the fur industry will admit that animal-rights activists have affected sales, but all will acknowledge that fur has not been getting great press until recently. It's not just the colorful, celebrity-studded campaign from the anti-fur folks; it's the vague sensibility that a big plush fur on anyone born after 1930 either is the height of '80s ostentation or smacks of trying too hard--what some people call the DKAA (Donna Karan for Administrative Assistants) look. "Until two years ago," says Sandy Parker, the industry's eminence grise and the publisher of a fur newsletter, Sandy Parker Reports, "younger people weren't anti-fur; they were just ignoring fur." It couldn't be more different now. "The way designers were cutting it and using it got the attention of the fashion industry," says Sasha Charnin Morrison, a marketing director for Harper's Bazaar. "The eye was being re-trained to look at fur again."

It makes sense that the solution to the image problem came from the biggest fur producer in the world: Saga Furs of Scandinavia, the joint marketing and public relations organization of the fur farmers of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Scandinavia provides more than half the world's fur pelts. Ten years ago, Saga opened its International Design Center. Since then it has been inviting established designers as well as hot young ones to an all-expenses-paid five-day getaway at its turn-of-the-century thatched mansion in the green hills and yellow fields of Sandbjerg, north of Copenhagen. It has also targeted fashion schools, taking trunkloads of furs to final-year students at schools like London's influential Central St. Martin's College of Art and Design. The aim of both programs was to get designers to think mink.

To inspire them, Saga developed techniques to combine different fur types and colors, as well as to dye, print, shave and twist fur and to treat it so that it can endure dry cleaning. It also helped designers get over any fur hang-ups with an education program. One of Saga's greatest successes has been to create fur that is lighter and thinner. It has made a fox-fur jacket that weighs less than a pound. And if there is one thing fashion people like, it's thin.

According to Tom Steifel-Kristensen, the p.r. manager at Saga, some 40 American designers have obtained fur licenses in the past couple of years after a little visit to Sandbjerg. "We help them develop their ideas while they're here and can use our facilities," says Steifel-Kristensen. "Then we offer to continue elaborating on their ideas after they have left and to make and supply samples." He says Saga will even help teach the designers' fur suppliers the techniques they have learned. Who could resist? Not designer Eric Gaskins, who visited Saga in 1994. "They really show someone who doesn't know fur that well what all the possibilities are," says Gaskins. His collection now includes a mink top patterned after an oversize fisherman's sweater. Saga's website trumpets the fact that a designer who has worked for the Gap and Banana Republic has visited. Fur-trimmed khakis, anyone?

Not every designer is budging. Donna Karan, Anna Sui, Todd Oldham and Betsey Johnson say they will use only fake fur--although some will use shearling. Nor is PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) backing down. Its latest salvo is a video narrated by Chloe designer Stella McCartney (daughter of Paul and Linda) that contains grisly footage of a fox farm in Illinois. And even the most hardened fashion followers are mortified that some designers are using seal fur. The farmers are fighting back, and the Fur Commission of America launched an informative, if slightly defensive, website in July. The FCA contends that the Illinois fox farm was for fox urine for hunters, not fur, and the farmer was a bad apple operating outside its guidelines.

The fur industry seems to be winning the image battle everywhere except Britain, even though homegrown supermodel Naomi Campbell modified her slogan from "I'd rather go naked than wear fur" to "I'd rather go naked than wear fur--until it becomes fashionable again," when she wore a huge bourbon-colored fur for Fendi last year. The public is also showing signs of protest fatigue. In the past, fur activists who freed minks from farms got sympathy. Now they are prosecuted.

Is all the fashion activity making any difference at retail? Sales of fur coats, according to the Fur Information Commission, have risen from 1991's low of $1 billion to 1997's $1.27 billion. But this is nowhere near 1987's high of $1.8 billion. Leslie Freund, marketing director for Maximilian, which sells furs at Bloomingdale's stores, says Maximilian has had double-digit increases over the past two years, but won't divulge exact figures. While the bulk of sales continue to be of classic mink coats, Freund says a growing number of young buyers are drawn to fur by the new styles. "Their first fur may be one of these whimsical pieces, but eventually they'll get more serious," says Freund. "These are our future customers." At least until the fashion changes.

--With reporting by Mairi Brahim/London, Ulla Plon/Copenhagen and Elaine Rivera/New York

With reporting by Mairi Brahim/London, Ulla Plon/Copenhagen and Elaine Rivera/New York