PARIS – Can real fur ever be fair and ethical? That is the question Apparel Insider asked as it approached several fur suppliers exhibiting at this week’s Premiere Vision event in France. We were interested to gather the views of the fur industry in the wake of the recent decision by luxury brand Burberry to ditch the use of real fur in its collections.
Burberry said it would stop using real fur in its products, and phase out existing fur items. However, when we caught up with German fur business Hofstetter Pelz & Design GmbH & Co, Leonhard Hofstetter told us the business had been supplying rabbit fur to Burberry but argued that the fur was a by-product of the rabbit meat industry. He claimed businesses like his own were being unfairly maligned.
He also told us that much of the fur supplied by Hofstetter these days is domestically hunted fox and raccoon, neither of which have been bred in captivity. “Currently just three per cent of domestic German fox which are hunted and five per cent of raccoon are used for their fur. The rest are disposed of,” he told Apparel Insider.
His argument is, essentially, that fur in these instances is a by-product and, as such, is no different to, say leather. Illustrating his point, he proudly showed me a fox rug, produced with the fur of several domestically hunted foxes, which would otherwise have been disposed of. The rug, he says, would retail at around 1500 Euros.
We also caught up with Italian fur company, Robotti Pelliccerie, a family business set up by Paolo Robotti in 1959. There, a spokesperson told us that the past few years had, indeed, been very difficult, with the decisions by many luxury brands to ditch fur having ripple effects across the market. “The supply for fur remains the same but the demand is falling so of course we are impacted,” a spokesperson told us. They did add, however, that there remains an “eager Chinese demand for fur products.”
While the likes of Robotti Pelliccerie were happy to talk about current market challenges, several fur suppliers gave us short shrift. Such responses were typified by Italian fur business Domenico Furs which quietly ushered us away from their booth as soon as we mentioned we were journalists.
Another fur supplier, which wished to remain nameless, accused the luxury apparel industry of hypocrisy when it comes to the use of fur, suggesting that when it comes to sustainability, the industry should be worrying about other issues.
More on this subject in the next printed copy of Apparel Insider.
