Real love of fake fur

When temperatures dip below freezing, stylish women around the world often reach for the warmest outerwear known to man —- animal fur.

Women who wanted the look of real fur without the high cost (or a heavy conscience) had few alternatives. But as anti-cruel became cool and man-made materials improved, faux fur took a turn for the better.

“Years ago when there weren’t very many high-end fabric stores … faux fur was very plastic-looking and matted, and it came in colors such as bright yellow and green. Now they can create faux furs that are sometimes impossible to tell [from real] to the untrained consumer eye,” said Bruce E. Dempsey, vice president, academic affairs specialist for The Art Institutes. The nationwide school of art and design, which has a campus in Atlanta, recently held its annual Cool vs. Cruel design competition, in which students create fashions using faux fur instead of animal fur.

While faux fur has gained followers, it also has detractors, who say the chemicals used in processing the fabric leaves something to be desired.

It was her desire for a nice fur without the high cost that first led Donna Salyers to go faux. Salyers, founder of Kentucky-based Fabulous-Furs, was sent to New York for a high-profile job at a time when the city streets were awash in fur-wearing pedestrians. “I didn’t have the money to buy one, so I made one,” Salyers said.

When she decided to buy a real mink coat years later, a radio news report made her think again; a toy manufacturer had been caught using cat hair to make “mink” teddy bears. “I hear that … and I thought, ‘Oh God! I may be on my way to buy a kitty coat.’ I couldn’t live with myself,” Salyers said.

She thought others might feel the same. So in 1989 she started selling kits to make faux fur coats. Loretta Swit, aka “Hot Lips” Houlihan from the television series “M*A*S*H,” was her first celebrity client. By 1993, with fewer people sewing, Salyers converted Fabulous-Furs into a ready-to-wear catalog business, offering full-length faux sable coats, shearling jackets and more that look and perform a lot like the real thing.

Faux fur, real success

Today, Salyers is often the go-to shop when furs are needed on Hollywood sets. Her coats have appeared on “The Sopranos,” “CSI” and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” (worn by singer Kellie Pickler). Last year, Salyers also began selling her coats on QVC. “I feel like the luckiest person in the world,” she said, though perhaps it’s more a matter of practicality than luck that has brought faux fur to the fore.

Fake fur with thick, long pile can be as warm as animal fur, Salyers said. Not only is the initial cost lower than that for animal fur —- a full-length faux sable coat from Salyers is $599 compared to $100,000 or more for some real Russian sables —- but faux-fur wearers also avoid the real-fur costs of cleaning, storage and upkeep.

Still, not everyone is on the faux-fur bandwagon.

It may seem as if demand for animal fur has declined (the number of U.S. fur farms decreased from 1,221 in 1974 to 283 in 2007, according to data from the Fur Information Council of America), but sales of animal fur reached $1.8 billion in 2007, according to Keith Kaplan, the organization’s executive director. Kaplan said the industry has seen growth among younger consumers (often emulating celebrities) and African-American shoppers.

Several national retailers and clothing brands, among them BCBG Max Azria, Bebe, Calvin Klein, Cole Haan, Nicole Miller and Tommy Hilfiger, pledged to be fur-free in 2008. Still, a number of luxury designers presented fur garments in their 2008 runway collections. Kaplan also said that faux fur isn’t as earth-friendly as it may seem. “Faux fur is a petroleum-based product,” he said. “It is not the green solution.”

Good faux, bad faux

Atlanta native and luxury eco-designer Linda Loudermilk agrees that chemicals used in processing some faux fur may be harmful to the environment, as well as to the wearer.

“Faux fur is good because it is not killing animals, but in my collection I use fabrics that are straight from the source … which doesn’t need pesticides to be produced or chemicals in its finishing process,” said Loudermilk, who condones fur wearing only in extreme climates and believes the wearer should subscribe to the Native American philosophy of giving back to the land.

A year ago, Loudermilk introduced a faux fur made from organic cotton —- an $1,800 beauty known as the Snow Hare coat —- though she acknowledges it is not suitable for very cold temperatures.

Loudermilk said she is committed to searching for other fur alternatives, such as goat fur or faux fur made of bamboo, that could provide warmth while still being cruelty- and chemical-free.

“I’m really big on this tribal way of thinking,” Loudermilk said, “but we just have to think of it in a new way.”