Word: fur
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...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...
...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...
...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...
...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...