Word: fur
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Mike Harper trudged through the dirty snow in downtown Warsaw searching for a fur hat to protect him against the icy wind. But among the meager selections in half a dozen stores, he could not find one hat that fitted. Harper, who runs a large food company in Omaha, refused to give up. He decided to offer one hatmaker the equivalent of an extra $10 in zlotys to whip something up by next morning. The man showed little enthusiasm, however, his sullen face reflecting the effects of 45 years of Communist rule. Harper left the store doubting that he would...
When Anna La Barbera, a 33-year-old psychotherapist from White Plains, N.Y., bought a silver fox coat in 1984, she did so with joy and absolutely no hesitation. She would like to replace the aging fur, however, and she is in a quandary. "There's nothing like the warmth of fur," she says. But her physician husband is concerned about animal rights, and the arguments of anti- fur activists have moved her. "I've been struggling with the dilemma of buying fur," says La Barbera. "I like the look, but I feel real guilty." She is now shopping...
...Barbera's dilemma is increasingly common among American women. Until recently, owning a fur coat, usually a mink, was an unquestioned emblem of luxury and social status. But lately a growing cadre of animal-rights activists has been aggressively denouncing such garments as "sadist symbols" that, they say, require the deaths of some 70 million helpless creatures each year (about 50 minks for each coat). That emotional claim has touched off a bitter battle that pits the animal lobby against fur owners and an increasingly embattled fur industry. So nasty have the hostilities become that in some cities around...
...look has clawed its way to the top for reasons topical and technological. For one thing, a decade ago fake-fur coats were lumpy modacrylic numbers that clever designers dismissed as "mama coats," garments that conservative women bought to keep out the cold. Now refined techniques allow realistic animal patterns to be printed on more vibrant and active fabrics, such as Lycra, stretch velour and even sheer silk mousseline...
Still, some clothiers are pussyfooting around the trend. In what may be a new high (or low) in fashion irony, Milan's Gianfranco Ferre is selling a real rabbit fur jacket for about $2,700. But it has been printed to look like leopard. It's hard for some of these cats to change their spots...