Terry Halifax
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 09/00) - Designers say that fur is back in fashion and are urging trappers to get back on the line to fill the warehouses for next spring's auctions.

World-wide interest in fur has retail outlets scrambling to snap up the new designs as the weather turns cold.

"All the major markets are becoming very, very strong," said Alan Herscovici of the Fur Council of Canada. "Trappers have had a tough wait, but they should hanging on because it's all turning around now."

World-wide interest in fur has retail outlets scrambling to snap up the new designs as the weather turns cold.

Barbara Balaila, executive director of Zuki Furs in Montreal, said although her husband Zuki is renowned for his use of fur in non-traditional knits, bright dyes and styles, she feels the resurgence in fur trends goes much further.

"I think this is very good news for trappers," Balaila said. "I know that fur is checking out very well at retail, so there's going to be a good demand for the selling season next spring.

The small boutiques and ready-to-wear shops know their clients best, she says and they are stocking up on the new designs.

"Fur is expensive and they're not used to spending a lot of money on items, so if they're putting money in this, they have faith," she assured. For customers looking for a spin on fur fashion, Paula Lishman International has been spinning wool out of brightly coloured furs for 22 years now, from her Blackstock, Ont. cottage industry.

Employing 160 full-time employees, Lishman said her clients have always been high-end retail boutiques who love her fur knits.

"For people living in big cities, surrounded by concrete and steel, the touch of fur instinctively brings them back to touching the earth," she said.

Terry Vourantonis is the designer and co-owner of Fur Co a Montreal-based design house who deals almost exclusively in wild fur.

He agrees that the current trend is to bright, non-traditional styles.

"Anything with hair on it, that is not made like a traditional fur coat is what young people want," Vourantonis said.

He advises trappers he needs clean, lightweight beaver pelts without fat or sinew for his new collection. He's introduced small collars, short, hip-length jackets, bright colours and a new reversible process called "fur in fur out" in his latest collection.

Paul Twigg is the owner of Lazare's Furs -- a 75-year-old fur retail outlet in Windsor, Ont. -- deals a lot with his American neighbours to the North.

He said he's noticing a definite increase in traffic.

"The designers have gotten a lot more creative and I think that helps right through the cycle and right back to the trappers," he said.

"The new Vogue magazine just came in and fur is on the cover and just scattered throughout the pages of the magazine."

Twigg, like Zuki has been making a lot of sales in beaver, due to the high cost of mink. He sells a lot of both farm-raised and wild fur and says the wild fur has attracted quite a following.

"Certainly as we get any wild fur in, it sells very quickly, because of the clarity, the uniqueness, the colour and whatnot," he said.

"We have a pretty good cross-section of clients, from the exotics like sables, lynx, right through to the long-haired beaver."