FUR INDUSTRY MAKING COMEBACK

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 27, 1993                   TAG: 9302270195
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DOTTIE ENRICO NEWSDAY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FUR INDUSTRY MAKING COMEBACK
After weathering five years of economic woes and attacks by animal rights activists, the fur industry is on the mend.
At their peak in the late 1980s, furriers were racking up sales of close to $2 billion. But by 1991, those who sold or wore fur were treated like fashion lepers and sales had fallen 40 percent, according to industry estimates.
Last October, however, the industry started to become mildly optimistic when stores saw scattered sales increases. Now, after a successful Christmas and a strong first quarter, furriers are convinced that the worst is behind them.
"We're seeing an encouraging trend toward sales increases of between 10 to 30 percent from most of our clients," said Larry Schulman, vice president at Alexandre Furs Inc., a New York City-based company that serves a few private clients and many major retail outlets.
Throughout the lean sales period, furriers maintained that the economy, not the animal-rights activists, were responsible for the downturn.
"I think the problems were primarily financial, but the animal rights activists wanted to claim victory," says Eugene Burns, president of Burns, Pauli, an investment research firm that follows Evans Inc., the largest publicly held fur company in the United States.
Now that the economy is showing small signs of recovery, furriers are trying to turn the tables by saying that the jump in sales might reflect a backlash against militant tactics used by animal rights groups.
"I'm sick of people trying to tell me what I should and shouldn't do," says Victoria Horstmann, an advertising executive who owns a fur coat. When Horstmann wore her coat for the first time a few years ago, she was sprayed with red paint. But she refused to stick her coat in the closet after it was cleaned because she didn't want to give in to intimidation.
"I think these groups may be losing their momentum," she says. "Two years ago I was confronted on the street constantly by anti-fur people. During the past year I haven't been approached by anyone."
Animal-rights activists think the release of glowing sales figures by the furriers is nothing more than a public relations ploy.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB