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PETA may take umbrage, but despite the movement towards environmental friendliness, the fur is flying…off the racks. Say what you will about fiscal austerity this year, but retailers are promoting luxury furs this holiday.
If a white sable is not in your stocking, take heart, a politically correct (non-endangered) hunted (not trapped) red fox may be. (And I’m not talking “Sanford & Son’s.)
Up and down Fifth Avenue, cloth coats are lapelled in beaver, coyote and rabbit. Not since Nicole Kidman in the fictionalized account of Diane Arbus, "I like it!" lost it to Robert Downey, as Jo-Jo the Dog Boy in 2006’s “Fur,” has fur been so fetishized. Fur has a historical resonance. So important was a fur to ensuring social status that Theodor Fontane's Effi Briest sold herself into a bad marriage for a mink coat, but so did slews of sit-com wives… think Lucy Ricardo.
Fur has been absent from ready-to-wear for ages. Lindsey Lohan may be prone to a flour pouncing from PETA Italiano, but store after store is boasting fur as this year's splurge item.
Lest you think that I’m pulling your leg, Juicy Couture, Bergdorf Goodman, Robert Cavalli, Salvatore Ferragamo and Saks have fur prominently displayed in their holiday windows. Is it a trend? Is it a fad? Is it all just coincidental? Do great minds think alike? I know that they don’t share the same buyer.
I don’t know why fur has suddenly exploded on the scene, but the message is loud and clear. Fur may be one of this year’s “must haves.”
The coats coincidentally remind one of the Depression era. Think Angelina Jolie in “The Changling,” or Monty Wooly in “The Man Who Came To Dinner,” which may account for its return.
More fur your consideration…does the man wear the clothes, or do the clothes wear the man? When fur clothing is not evident, taxidermy is, like Bergdorf Goodman’s Men’s and Brook Brothers.
For some there’s a “yuck” factor, seeing formerly living squirrels, chipmunks, rams and polar bears playing in the great American store window.
What does the preponderance of fur suggest, the need for warmth, a connection to nature, the sensuality of touch, luxury, connection to a staple of a prior era, breaking the rules, defiance of political correctness and man’s control of the environment.
Will you be taking more than a furtive glance when it comes to fur?
--Ron Knoth, Guest Blogger
(Psst! DDI's annual Winning Windows competition will take place in New York the second week of December. Awards will be presented at the 12th annual PAVE Gala. Winners also will be recognized in the January issue of DDI, and online at www.ddimagazine.com.)
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