Fur-Free Fashion Plates Are Feathering Their Nests
Fur-clad Beverly Hills women shopping Wilshire Boulevard department stores today might be asked to defend their right to wear real furs. It’s the third annual Fur-Free Friday and demonstrators will be picketing 80 locations across the United States, including Beverly Hills.
Feather coats that resemble furs could be the answer for some women.
Michelle Massullo of Cleveland and her four business-partner sisters recently shipped their first collection of feather wraps to I. Magnin and Bullocks Wilshire, as well as selected Bullock’s stores. The fluffy outerwear carries the Lena Fiore label, after the designing sisters’ grandmother. All styles bear a resemblance to real fox but are made of turkey down.
The Massullo sisters’ novel designs include flirty boleros and knee-grazing swing coats. Most sell for suggested retail prices of $450 to $1,200 and are available in natural “fur” colors as well as fashion brights, such as fuchsia, violet and green.
Massullo hopes the coats will serve as glamorous problem-solvers for women who avoid real fur.
“We want to fill a need for the people who are really aware of what they are wearing, but will not wear a fur. They have a very appealing, soft, romantic look. Men will say, ‘Can I touch your coat?’ ”
Wilmer Weiss, senior VP in communications for I. Magnin and Bullocks Wilshire stores, declined comment on the Fur-Free Friday demonstration, but says customers looking for faux furs have plenty to choose from in his store.
The appeal of feathers? “They are novel, look extravagant and are quite trendy,” Weiss said. “They’re for women with fashion savvy who like to be different.”
Not everyone gives a stamp of approval to counterfeit furs. Dana Stuchell, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania-based Trans-Species Unlimited, says her animal rights organization admonishes anyone who wears any garments that resemble real fur, though she reluctantly admits they are preferred over the real thing.
“Fake fur bothers us too,” said Stuchell, “because it promotes the idea that it is fashionable to wear a fake animal. We want to deglamorize the idea of wearing animal pelts, as much as anything else.”
