The End of Fur?

For decades faux furs were considered the epitome of bad taste, but developments in textile design, including the advent of 3d-printed fur, are converting even some of the biggest skeptics.

- Eric Wilson

Allow me to begin this column with an answer to the question raised in its headline, which is no, not yet. But I ask about the future of fur for a reason.

At no time in the past 19 years that I have been covering the fashion industry (believe it or not, I started on the fur beat at Women’s Wear Daily) have I seen so many prominent designers turning away from the use of traditional minks and sables all at once, and with surprisingly different explanations. The fall collections alone included several that incorporated fakes that looked remarkably real or even better than real. This was the case at Dries Van Noten, where the designer called to mind the Marchesa Luisa Casati, the eccentric Italian socialite, using imitation-leopard-spot coats, and also at Calvin Klein, where the womenswear creative director Francisco Costa, in what would be his final collection for the house, showed photo prints of lynx and skunk in the place of actual furs. And there was one major designer who went much further this season: Giorgio Armani, after 40 years in the business, announced that all his collections going forward would be fur-free.

“My company is now taking a major step ahead, reflecting our attention to the critical issues of protecting and caring for the environment and animals,” Armani says.