Jauhn Etienne Villaruel

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<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1777010779695deny-hill-5yuOgWjzAfU-unsplash (1).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">New York is thawing out after a particularly cruel winter that&#x27;s included debates over fur&#x27;s revival as influencers push the look and retail sites report a jump in searches for vintage pieces. <em>📷༘ Deny Hill, Unsplash</em></span></span></span></div><p>NEW YORK, United States — Laura Jacobs thought she&#x27;d never wear animal fur, having witnessed years of protests over its use in clothing—until suddenly she started spotting it all over New York.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/life/03/31/18/animals-rights-groups-smell-blood-as-fashion-labels-go-fur-free">Animals rights groups smell blood as fashion labels go fur-free</a></div><p>Jacobs fished out the long mink her grandmother left her years ago and took it to a Manhattan furrier to give it a second act.</p><p>Fur &quot;was stigmatized for so long,&quot; Jacobs told AFP, posing before a full-length mirror and assessing a potential crop.</p><p>But the return of real fur &quot;fits with everything that&#x27;s going on with recycling and bringing back vintage,&quot; she said.</p><p>&quot;I never would have bought a fur coat,&quot; Jacobs said, adding that the thought of &quot;killing animals like that&quot; gave her pause.</p><p>But &quot;this felt like I was recycling it,&quot; she said.</p><p>New York is thawing out after a particularly cruel winter that&#x27;s included debates over fur&#x27;s revival as influencers push the look and retail sites report a jump in searches for vintage pieces.</p><p>Business owners like Larry Cowit -- who inherited and runs his family&#x27;s Madison Avenue Furs -- are celebrating a sales spike.</p><p>&quot;I have girls as young as 20 years old walking in, coming in from college, and putting on a fox jacket,&quot; Cowit told AFP. &quot;We haven&#x27;t seen that in quite a while.&quot;</p><p>Noelle Sciacca -- head of fashion at the high-end resale site The RealReal -- said &quot;interest in fur has accelerated dramatically,&quot; with searches for vintage fur on their website nearly tripling in 2025 from 2024.</p><p>The trend is &quot;booming across the board,&quot; she told AFP, &quot;but real fur is clearly leading the surge.&quot;</p><p>Sciacca owes part of the interest to &quot;sustainable, accessible resale options,&quot; which she said &quot;has made consumers feel comfortable embracing fur as both stylish and thoughtful.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>MUDDLED PUBLIC OPINION <span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1777010819876markus-spiske-HMOi1xhIkeI-unsplash (1).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"><em>📷༘ Markus Spiske, Unsplash </em></span></span></span></strong></div><p>The global fashion industry&#x27;s use of fur has been on the outs for decades.</p><p>Synthetic, cheaper alternatives have gained traction, and animal rights activists continue to push dropping the real thing.</p><p>Demonstrators recently urged Milan Fashion Week to go fully fur-free. New York&#x27;s Fashion Week fur ban goes into effect in September 2026.</p><p>Many major designers have vowed to stop using it, including Prada, Michael Kors and Saint Laurent.</p><p>The European Commission meanwhile is reviewing a citizen&#x27;s initiative that drew millions of signatures urging an EU-wide ban on fur farming. A spokesperson told AFP the commission would communicate in the coming weeks whether it would propose such a prohibition.</p><p>Yet the culture&#x27;s court of public opinion has grown muddled, notably as concerns about fast fashion and petroleum-based materials grow.</p><p>&quot;I always imagine all of the faux-fur coats being produced right now melting into a puddle of plastic. The idea of reuse and recycling can include vintage fur,&quot; Vogue archivist Laird Borrelli-Persson said in comments recently published by the fashion magazine.</p><p>&quot;The question for me is whether wearing vintage fur increases the appetite for lookalikes -- either faux or new fur.&quot;</p><p>Real fur coats demand consistent upkeep. The skins contain natural oils, and garments not kept in a temperature-controlled environment -- ideally off-season in cold vaults -- can dry out and disintegrate.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s biodegradable,&quot; said Cowit.</p><p>But Ashley Byrne of animal rights group PETA said buying vintage under the banner of sustainability is &quot;well-meaning but misguided.&quot;</p><p>She told AFP that shoppers who didn&#x27;t grow up exposed to footage from inside fur farms should &quot;understand that wearing any fur that came from the back of an animal who was tortured and killed is endorsing things that we&#x27;re sure they do not want to support.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>ONLINE INFLUENCE </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Cowit said their ratio of vintage to new fur sales is now approximately 70 to 30. Pre-owned coats can go anywhere from $500 to $10,000, and the average mink is $1,500 to $1,800, he said.</p><p>He credits the internet with boosting business: &quot;The influencers on social media have really changed the whole world.&quot;</p><p>Part of the online drive stems from the &quot;mob wife&quot; aesthetic that&#x27;s trended on TikTok in recent years, looks featuring flashy jewelry, animal prints, and -- you guessed it -- fur.</p><p>Madison Avenue Furs&#x27; Instagram features Cowit&#x27;s niece posing on the shop&#x27;s balcony in a variety of plush coats recalling &quot;Sopranos&quot;-esque fashion.</p><p>Stylist Renee May, who stopped by with shoppers looking to modernize their grandmother&#x27;s coats and check out new jackets, told AFP &quot;a lot of my clients are wearing their furs again.&quot;</p><p>Nicole Bellmier, 36, called the look &quot;very nostalgic.&quot;</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s something to pass down to our children,&quot; her cousin Dominique Defonte added.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO<br/></strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XVnuRyEo_FY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>New York is thawing out after a particularly cruel winter that's included debates over fur's revival as influencers push the look and retail sites report a jump in searches for vintage pieces.</p>

New York is thawing out after a particularly cruel winter that's included debates over fur's revival as influencers push the look and retail sites report a jump in searches for vintage pieces.

'Stigmatized' or 'sustainable'? Vintage sales boost sees fur return

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'Stigmatized' or 'sustainable'? Vintage sales boost sees fur return

Maggy Donaldson,

Agence France-Presse

Published April 24, 2026 02:08 PM PHT

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New York

United States

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Agence France-Presse

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