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Fur returns with a vengeance
Paris, Nov 07: Brigitte Bardot is cross. Despite a decade-long campaign, fur is back, back in a big way, taking the spotlight on the catwalks, on magazine covers and in department-store windows.
Paris, Nov 07: Brigitte Bardot is cross. Despite a decade-long campaign, fur is back, back in a big way, taking the spotlight on the catwalks, on magazine covers and in department-store windows.
In an open letter to the world`s top fashion designers last month, the former French actress turned animal rights campaigner lashed out against "the strong comeback of fur", reminding stylists that fur clothing "causes the death of 35
million animals each year worldwide".
Once a symbol of social class, successive economic crises and crusades in favour of animal rights – some involving top models such as Naomi Campbell -- triggered a sharp drop in fur sales in the 1990s.
But after years as an outcast of fashion, this winter fur will be a winner from haute couture to basic ready-to-wear. Dior, Gaultier, Givenchy, Lanvin and Celine -- almost all the big names as well as the others -- are using fur as coats, scarves, wraps or just as an added touch of something different. People wanted more than mere coats nowadays, Steifel-Kristensen told AFP. They wanted "a multitude of styles and ideas, from scarves to bags, to collars and other `transportable` goods".
At the casual chic French house of Ramosport, designer Marcel Marongiu said he had "learnt to play down fur" by making sure only fur from farmed animals was used – farmed furs make up about 85 percent of worldwide production -- and then by working the fabric in the same way he would work on other textiles.
Once a symbol of social class, successive economic crises and crusades in favour of animal rights – some involving top models such as Naomi Campbell -- triggered a sharp drop in fur sales in the 1990s.
But after years as an outcast of fashion, this winter fur will be a winner from haute couture to basic ready-to-wear. Dior, Gaultier, Givenchy, Lanvin and Celine -- almost all the big names as well as the others -- are using fur as coats, scarves, wraps or just as an added touch of something different. People wanted more than mere coats nowadays, Steifel-Kristensen told AFP. They wanted "a multitude of styles and ideas, from scarves to bags, to collars and other `transportable` goods".
At the casual chic French house of Ramosport, designer Marcel Marongiu said he had "learnt to play down fur" by making sure only fur from farmed animals was used – farmed furs make up about 85 percent of worldwide production -- and then by working the fabric in the same way he would work on other textiles.
Bureau Report