Designer Fur Coats NYC

Designer Fur Coats NYC are booming after swing from fashion faux pas to catwalk favorite

Figures show farmers stepping up production to meet soaring demand for mink, sable, fox and ferret pelts

Fur pelts — Buyers and sellers trade animal fur pelts at a fashion fair in Hong Kong. Photograph: Alex Hofford/EPA

They are not alone in falling off the anti-fur wagon. Figures from the International Fur Federation show that the industry is enjoying another year of considerable growth. The demand for mink, sable, fox, and ferret has soared, and farmers have stepped up production.

In 2013/14, 87.2m mink pelts produced around the world, worth a total of £2.2bn, with 35m produced by China alone.

China also remains one of the biggest producers of fox pelt, and together with Finland, 91% of the 7.8m fox furs produced globally.

The figures – the first to show a breakdown of different pelts – follow on from research by the IFF last year, which valued the global fur trade at more than £26bn.

On the British catwalks last year, more than 60% of shows featured designer fur coats, and at New York fashion week, the figure topped 70%. While luxury labels such as Fendi have a long history of featuring real furs in their shows, fur is increasingly being used by newer brands as well. In New York, the up-and-coming label Cushnie Et Ochs said fur was its favorite material, adding that it was “not ashamed.”

Fashion Designers

This month Karl Largerfeld said he would be putting on a select “couture fur” show to mark his 50th anniversary of working for Fendi. “For me, fur is Fendi, and Fendi is fur, fun furs,” he said. “Fendi is my Italian version of creativity. The Fendi Haute fourrure fashion show is the opportunity to stage the royal furs of furs.”

He told the New York Times: “For me, as long as people eat meat and wear leather, I don’t get the message. It’s effortless to say no fur, no fur, no fur, but it’s an industry. Who will pay for all the people’s unemployment if you suppress the fur’s industry?”

Celebrities in Fur

In the 80s, it was a fashion faux pas to step out in fur, but today’s celebrities seen. Rihanna and Rita Ora recently pictured in real mink coats. Kim Kardashian dressed her one-year-old daughter North West in what thought to be a $3,500 (£2,300) crystal fox fur coat.

Rita Ora Silver Coat

Rhianna Yellow fur dress

Lady Gaga made a Naomi Campbell-Esque turnabout on the issue. Initially they denounced fur.

Naomi Campbell in Magnificent Blackglama Mink Coat Sable Fur Collar

Lady Gaga Reigning Fur Queen

Lady Gaga Reigning Fur QueenMark Oaten, CEO of the International Fur Federation, said he was unsurprised by the growth in production as the taboo around wearing real fur was fading into irrelevance. “We knew from the catwalks that fur is certainly being used much more by designers and from some of the retail figures, which can be patchy and difficult, that the sales are going strong,” he said. “So, with this increase in demand, farmers are deciding to invest more in fur farms and increase production.”

“Designers appear to be embracing it. Customers appear to be embracing it again. We certainly find the younger generation have less of an issue with fur than the younger generation of the 1980s,” he said.

We’ve seen a change in patterns of the kind of consumers in Asia. Six months ago, I would have said Beijing and Shanghai are scorching markets, but now we are seeing a shift away to the second- and third-tier cities in China. We’ve also seen an enormous increase in America because fur has had an incredibly busy runway, and it has also been extraordinarily cold.”

Fur Industry Strong Globally

In the UK, members of the British Fur Trade Association reported a 20% increase in sales last year. The association’s chief executive, Mike Moser, said the growth driven as much by younger generations as by foreign millionaires.

“It’s hot stuff because fur is used in a fun way in fashion now,” he said. “It’s more accessible for young people because of the increase of fur trims on coats and fur accessories.

“The BFTA runs an annual competition for design students using fur, and this year we’ve seen a 50% increase in the number of students taking art. They want to use fur in their designs, which proves there such a strong interest in the younger generation.”

While the fur industry in countries such as Canada, the US, and Europe remain heavily regulated. China, which is much more lax about animals’ welfare not as careful. Oaten conceded it was a concern for the IFF and said cleaning up the Chinese fur trade remained a priority.

“Obviously, with so much mink coming from China, one of my big priorities is to make sure that they understand what the requirements are for welfare,” he said. “I was in China a couple of weeks ago meeting with government officials. They have already adopted the Council of Europe guidelines on welfare, and we’ve had a long dialogue with them to implement even stronger welfare protocols. The difficulty does still lie in ensuring these regulations enforced in such a large country.”

Oaten said he was a personal fan of pelts. “I use a lot of fur for interiors,” he said. “Though I’ve not yet found a fur coat that suits me.”

Sales for fur jackets and coat selling strong.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Tag: designer fur coats