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Furs all over the Designer Runways

 There Is So. Much. Fur. On the Runway.

 
Filed to: Fur3/03/15 9:00am Yesterday 9:00am

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Custom designed furs
Custom designed furs

Chris Brown is obviously just trolling us now.

 
At the end of New York Fashion Week this February, there was the usual onslaught of sing-song-y articles parsing the trends. “Fur!” they all chirped, every one. Fur, fur, fur, fur, fur!

It was everywhere. Furs coats, sure, but also fur scarves, fur stoles, fur shirts, fur shoulder pads, fur vests. Fox fur was most prevalent, although some mink, and in the case of Marc Jacobs, skunk. Reviewers vomited a steady stream of glowing modifiers to flesh out the trend, some furs belonging to the “bohemian/rustic/artisanal” end of the spectrum, others deemed “high ’70s glamour.” Certain designers, like Michael Kors, have always used fur in their collections—but even brands like Suno, which had never gone down the fur route (and whose collection I fawned over here), featured a few mink-accented looks.

[Clockwise: Alexander Wang, Altuzarra, Cushnie et Ochs, Dennis Basso, Diane von Furstenberg, Michael Kors, Prabal Gurung, Suno, Wes Gordon, Zac Posen]

There Is So. Much. Fur. On the Runway. 

Some of these treatments are, admittedly, beautiful. Prabal’s ombre fox fur gilet is chic as hell, and as Fashion Week traveled overseas to London, Roksanda (second to last, below) sent some stunning, otherworldly creations down the runway.

[From left: House of Holland, Matthew Williamson, Roksanda, Sass and Bide]

There Is So. Much. Fur. On the Runway. 

And in Milan, the fur parade continued. Some designers only showed one or two pieces; others, like Marni, were more heavy-handed.

[From left: Gucci, Marni, Philipp Plein, Emilio Pucci]

There Is So. Much. Fur. On the Runway. 
Furs

And we can’t forget Fendi! The absolute glut of furs Lagerfeld sent down the runway at Fendi, including some fully hideous fur boots, is but a sampling of what’s coming; the label will be presenting a “haute fourrure” show during Paris Couture week in July dedicated entirely to fur.

There Is So. Much. Fur. On the Runway. 

There Is So. Much. Fur. On the Runway. 

This is obscene furs as Fashion Month pushes on to Paris, it’s something we should all be talking about. Faux fur is better than it’s ever been, but it’s still not ruling the runways. The fur trade is currently valued at over $40 billion dollars. Furriers, as the New York Times reported a few years ago, essentially bribe young designers into experimenting with their wares, forging career-long ties.According to the International Fur Federation, where such numbers can be found, China is currently the world’s largest importer of fur, closely followed by North America, Europe and Russia. Between 2000 and 2010, fur sales rose 70%. Nobody in fashion appears to give a shit about PETA—and why would anyone considered a tastemaker pay attention to an organization known for campaigns like this?

We’ve been here before. Every once and a while, an article like the one I’m writing right now has attempted to question the fur frenzy, shaking its tiny proverbial fists against the giant fashion cog that transforms an ugly death into something clean and covetable.

But nothing really changes, despite the fact that designers like Stella McCartney have paved a gorgeous alternate path, and despite the fact that the inner workings of the fur industry are a fairly well-known phenomenon.

(In case a refresher is needed: A recent investigation found designers including Fendi and Alice & Olivia to be sourcing furs from a farm in China in which raccoon dogs and foxes were kept in piles of their own feces, electrocuted, and skinned alive. In Finland, where nearly four million foxes, polar foxes, minks, polecats and racoon dogs are raised and killed for their fur on farms, arctic foxes are typically kept in 8.6 square ft. wire cages (and minks in 2.7 sq. ft cages). An investigation into Finnish fur farms found frequent cases of open wounds, leg and ear injuries, cannibalism, lame animals, gum infections, dead animals left in cages with living animals, and more.)

The International Fur Federation, on the “Ethics” section of its own website, essentially waves its hand at the problem of animal cruelty, noting that “the main goal of many anti-fur groups is to deny other members of society the right to make their own individual choice.”

Individual rights are cool. But there’s no need to flex them by wearing a dead animal whose suffering has been rendered completely unnecessary by the highly imitable nature of its pelt.

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Fur is Back in Fashion with a Vengeance

Fur is Back in Fashion with a Vengeance: Will You Embrace It?

by Nora Crotty


Two Tone Brown and Black Mink Coat Puffed Collar exclusively from Marc Kaufman Furs’ collectionSupporters call it “natural” and “sustainable.” Opposers say it’s cruel and inhumane. But whichever side you fall on, there’s no denying that fur had a major presence on the fall 2013 runways this past month, being hailed as one of the biggest trends for next season.

Golden Sable Coat
Golden Sable Coat

Striped, dyed, embossed, and manipulated, the sheer amount of real animal fur we saw this fashion month was more overwhelming than we remembered from seasons past. We scoured through every single photo of every single collection that walked this season and found that a startling 70% of the designers who showed during fashion month used fur in at least one look. Several collections, including those by Altuzarra, Marc Jacobs, and Louis Vuitton, incorporated fur into over 20 looks. Others still, like J.Mendel, Marni, and Giambattista Valli, used fur in more than 30.

And then there was Fendi. Karl Lagerfeld apparently had some fuzzy vision happening while designing the Italian label’s fall line: Every single look from the 40+ piece collection featured multiple instances of fur usage, including (but certainly not limited to) coats, handbags, sunglasses, shoes, and even mohawk-esque hair pieces made of dyed fox. Needless to say, there were zero PETA pie-ings reported.

So is it safe to say that fur has finally fallen back into favor? Wearing fur has always been a hot button issue. Once considered the most regal and luxurious of materials, the animal rights movement first brought attention to the alleged wrongdoings of the fur trade in the late 1970s. In that same vein, the Internet age has beckoned an onslaught of viral anti-fur videos showing the horrific living (and dying) conditions of innocent animals skinned alive for their pelts–inspiring a new generation to think anti-fur. Veganism, more prevalent than ever amongst health-freaks and animals lovers alike (see: Anne Hathaway), promotes a lifestyle completely devoid of eating–or wearing–anything that once had a face. Not to mention the city of West Hollywood, California’s historic ban on the selling of fur products, slated to go into effect this September.

White Mink Coat Full Length
White Mink Coat Full Length

According to Keith Kaplan, executive director of the Fur Information Council of America, the case against fur is due mostly to a lack of education–and the fashion world is at the forefront of changing those misconceptions. “Designers have done their homework,” he told us via email. “They have come to recognize that the fur industry is committed to the humane and responsible treatment of animals and that no industry is more highly regulated at local, national, and international levels.”

Dyed Green Silver Fox Fur Vest, exclusively from Marc Kaufman Furs in NYCKaplan went on to describe fur as an eco-friendly option, calling it a “natural, renewable, biodegradable resource”–and thus a smarter choice than synthetic fur, which he says is petroleum-based, non-renewable, and manufactured in such a manner that “releases harmful chemicals into the atmosphere.”

Furthermore, “fur has a unique and unparalleled richness and texture that even the best of faux cannot replicate,” says Kaplan–which may explain why Marc Jacobs chose to show almost cartoon-like, stuffed animal-looking stoles for fall, made of very real animal fur.

Of course Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour has made no secret of her penchant for the real stuff and is often credited with introducing it back into fashion. Countless verbal and physical attacks from anti-fur protesters (including a raccoon carcass-bombing during dinner) haven’t dissuaded the first lady of fashion from using it in her editorials since she began her rein in the late ’80s.

But were the fall runways a sign of the fashion industry going green, or something more sinister? PETA‘s Danielle Katz told us that fur-friendly designers, such as Karl Lagerfeld, “use dead animals for shock value” and that, as far as the general public is concerned, “fur remains as popular as a cold sore.”

royal blue mink coat
royal blue mink coat

Katz could be on the right track about the latter. After all, it was our shock at the prevalence of fur at shows like Lagerfeld’s Fendi that lead us to investigate fur’s current social standing in the first place. As for the public’s opinion, is the general populace really looking for a tube of Abreva big enough to wipe out the fur industry–or is the fashion industry simply responding to society’s fever for fur?

We consulted data polling site Gallup.com for the cold, hard, fur facts. Gallup’s most recent survey on the subject, conducted in May 2012, asked participants whether they considered wearing fur morally acceptable. Of the 1024 people included, a resounding 60% saw fur as morally acceptable–a 4% increase from the same poll taken one year earlier. However, in 2012, only 35% believed fur to be morally wrong–a 4% decrease from the 39% who were totally anti-fur in 2011.

Dyed Blue Silver Fox exclusively from Marc Kaufman Furs in NYCThere are of course, as with any poll, various factors at play here, including the age, education, and income of the participants. But if these numbers say anything, it’s that fur’s approval rating has only increased in the past year–and the fashion industry, per usual, is totally in tune.

But what say you? Will you be clamoring for real-fur everything next season and turn your cheek at your house pets’ third cousins, or would you rather save the animals but potentially upset Mother Nature in doing so? Can there ever be a middle-ground when it comes to fur in fashion? We want to hear what you think.

Two Tone Brown and Black Mink Coat exclusively from Marc Kaufman Furs

Two Tone Brown Black Mink Fur Jacket 9944
Two Tone Brown Black Mink Fur Jacket 9944

Marc Kaufman Furs NYC NY 10001 212 563 3877

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Red Fox Fur Stroller with Belt & Hood, exclusively from Marc Kaufman Furs in NYC

Marc Kaufman Furs in New York City, NY ships your fur purchases and rentals to wherever you may be: Chicago, Illinois, Detroit, Michigan, Buffalo, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, California, Minnesota, Seattle, Washington, Philadelphia, Taos, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Atlanta, Georgia, Portland, Oregon, Park City, Utah, Idaho, Vermont, Maine, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Montana, Aspen, Colorado, Missouri, Anchorage, Alaska, Moscow, Russia, London, UK, England, Seoul, South Korea, Geneva, Gstaad, Lausanne, Zurich, Switzerland, Germany, Paris, Chamonix, France, Austria, Italy, Dubai, UAE, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, China, Tokyo, Osaka, Japan, Toronto, Whistler, British Columbia, Quebec, Canada, Helsinki, Finland, Stockholm, Sweden, Copenhagen, Oslo, Norway, Melbourne, Sydney, Australia, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Singapore; to all 50 States, and just about anywhere else in the World! With over 2000 quality furs to choose from, and the option to design your own, Marc Kaufman Furs of NYC has the most extensive online fur selection in the World.