Fur is alive and kicking, despite campaigns

By John Ruwitch

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Anti-fur campaigners have tried everything from impassioned appeals to pet lovers, gruesome videos, name-and-shame campaigns and adverts featuring nude stars proclaiming they'd rather go naked than sport a pelt.

But despite their best efforts, wrapping up in fur is a trend that has failed to go away.

"Without a doubt, there are more people wearing fur today than ever before," said Timothy Everest, a member of the Hong Kong Fur Federation.

Still, while industry insiders gush about growing sales and new frontiers, public relations remains the crucial battleground for a $13.5 billion fur industry dogged by accusations of being inhumane and unnecessary.

In Hong Kong last week, 245 fur companies set up elaborate exhibits, some featuring their own mini-runways, at one of the industry's main trade shows of the year. It was the biggest show since the fur fair's inception in 1982.

Despite subtropical weather, Hong Kong inherited the fur tradition when Shanghai's world-renowned pelt craftsmen fled the Communists in the 1940s. It is now the world's biggest importer of farmed fur skins and the leading exporter of fur garments.

At Dennis Fong's expansive booth, gaggles of fur buyers from Russia, China and beyond crammed in to watch lithe Asian and European models strut the latest designs from the Isla brand of furs that he manages.

Fong, a third-generation producer of fur clothing, entered the family business around the beginning of the decade.

"That was a good time to come back because fur was coming back," said the 29-year-old.

TURNAROUND INDUSTRY

From its heyday in the early and middle part of the 20th century, the fur industry slumped and its iconic ankle-length mink coat started looking old. In the 1980s, it hit bottom.

"You could see from the late '80s that the realization hit that unless we changed the way that we were marketing the product then there wasn't going to be the demand because the product was boring," said Everest.

Around the late 1970s and early 1980s, the annual global mink harvest, an industry benchmark, bottomed out at about 22 million, said Frank Zilberkweit, director of the London furrier Hockley.

But just when things looked their bleakest, a fur renaissance started.

"In the '90s, suddenly the fashion industry discovered fur," he said, speculating that designers probably saw it as a way to tap into freshly opened fast growing economies in places with strong fur traditions -- Russia and China.