Guess what's back on the runways in Milan? Fur -- the real thing!
And so began the international fashion collections in Europe. Not only was there an abundance of furs gracing those runways, but there is a forever-increasing roster of designers choosing to work with fur. As reported by FICA in Fur Age recently, the number of designers creating in furs has increased a phenomenal 150% over the past 10 years! With only 42 working in fur in 1985, there are currently more than 105 designers creating fur and shearling fur collections as well as using fur trims in their outerwear collections.
Fur designs from Gucci and Armani, as they appeared in the New York Times last week.
And with early reports in from Milan, several more names will be added to this very impressive roster! Additionally, it seems that, with more designers showcasing their fur collections, models are no longer making an issue about wearing furs. They all are -- including Claudia Schiffer at Fendi!
While designers still enjoy using imitation fur (after all, it is still the sincerest form of flattery), many showed fabulous creations in mink and sable, in fur shawls as well as in linings. Some world-renown Italian names making their mark in fur for the first time included Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Anna Molinari, Max Mara, Gucci, Prada and Antonio Fusco.
At the Fendi Pellicce Moda Pronta collections, Karl Lagerfeld's fur collection was "toned down, not flashy." Many short-haired furs were used, including weasel polo shirts and shirt jackets, persian lamb jackets, mink-lined camel hair coats, belted leather jackets with fur collars and cuffs, and many reversible shearling fur coats.
While the fur flowed in Milan, it will continue down the runways in New York during the Seventh on Sixth ready-to-wear shows at the end of March, with the epitome of the international fur fashion scene to take place during Fur Fashion Week in May. The best is yet to come!
Sandy Blye is the New York-based director of fashion promotions for the Fur Information Council of America.
Fashion editors blasted the news across the world last week: Milan ready-to-wear designers during the week of Mar. 4 brought back luxurious dressing in their fall collection premieres, and along with it, enough furs to make an activist cry.
The New York Times Mar. 12
One picture of a fur coat, labeled with one designer name, is enough said: Armani.
Contacted by Fur Age last week, North American offices swore, "We don't do furs." But of course.
Giorgio Armani has been the poster designer for animal activists for at least a decade. He has been their favorite name, when they try to present a case for their false assertion that designers have eschewed furs.
But when told that the evidence was right there in the Times, a representative for Armani in New York said, "Oh, yes, persian lamb."
Newsday Mar. 12
"Italian designers signal a return to rich dressing," announced the headline. "Whether it was the furs-and-flares chic of designer Tom Ford's show for Gucci -- last week's best -- or the deliciously jaded Fendi collection by Karl Lagerfeld...expensive clothes actually looked expensive for a change, but with an edge."
Writer Frank DeCare continued, "The strength of the Fendi show made fur seem so covetable again that women may be tempted to tell animal rights activists to puff off. Shearlings in reflective finishes, mole fur shift dresses worn with knee-high moon-boots, a long military-style coat printed all over with the double-F Fendi logo and worn over a long rhinestone-encrusted skirt -- these are clothes women would kill for, the political correctness of fur be damned."
CNN FN Mar. 12
"Fur is back. Not only is it back, it's in vogue," announced CNN FN (the financial version of CNN television) last week. New York Daily News fashion editor Orla Hele appeared in a tour de force broadcast that summarized the fur trade's wealth of good news, especially the fact that fur sales are up.
"There has been a huge change in attitude," she said. The public is sick of activists, who represent "very militant groups," and "designers are saying enough is enough." Fur was all over the runways in Milan, and she quoted Karl Lagerfeld, who designs the Chanel, Fendi and Chloe collections, as saying that he is fed up with being told what to do.
The piece was encouraged by the recent announcement by FICA (the Fur Information Council of America) that U.S. fur sales in 1995 had increased 10% over the previous calendar year.
Wall Street Journal Mar. 7
The same FICA announcement about sales made the front page of the Wall Street Journal as a "Business Bulletin" brief: "The fur was flying off the racks in January, thanks partly to the Blizzard of '96, says the Fur Information Council. It says fur retailers noted a 22% increase in January sales versus a year ago. For all of 1995, U.S. fur sales rose 10% to $1.2 billion."
Women's Wear Daily Mar. 11
Even the trade paper Women's Wear Daily, which hasn't assigned too much editorial space to furs in recent years, was impressed by the amount of fur on the Milan runways recently. On Mar. 11, it noted, "Guess what's back on the runways? Fur -- the real thing. Designers here still love fake fur, but many of them also showed touches of mink, rabbit and sable on cuffs and collars, fur shawls and linings...Some designers say simply that times have changed. 'Even the models don't make a fuss anymore,' Domenico Dolce said."
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