Haute faux: Chemistry and the look of fur

A funny thing happened on the way to the fur salon: The fur was forgotten. Designers instead turned to polymer chemists for a substitute that could please fur-coveting consumers and possibly assuage a few concerns of animal rights activists.

This fall, some of the most eye-catching jackets and accessories incorporate realistic fake fur. "It's really about the tactile nature of the season," says Colleen Sherin, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue.

Even at the high end, fake fur is being used widely by designers who note the improved quality and realistic nature of materials coming from Europe and Japan. These imported materials allow for more versatility in design, not to mention lower costs.

The trend has been bubbling up for a couple of years. Chanel based its fall 2009 show around fake fur, producing getups reminiscent of woolly mammoths. The Prada fall 2011 runway included a mix of real and faux fur.

Consumers will encounter the high-faux look on items including boots, bags, coats and vests. At the wholesale level, sales of fake fur reached $250 million in the United States last year, and those sales are expected to increase by 30 percent over the next two years, according to Pell Research, a Washington, D.C., firm that identifies new markets and trends.

Macy's is planning to stock more fake fur than in past seasons, including top-selling brands such as INC and Michael Kors, says Caprice Willard, vice president and regional planning manager for the department store chain. Faux fur vests and accessories have been bestsellers on HSN, according to fashion director Lauren Wilner. "Vests do really well, as do cropped jackets," she says. Naeem Khan's fake fur collection, which HSN started marketing last month, will include "mink" coats with shawl collars and "cheetah" vests.

"It's all about a fashion statement and creating a look, just like you would with any other fabric," says designer Dennis Basso, who works with real fur in his ready-to-wear line, but also creates a robust faux fur collection for his Dennis by Dennis Basso Collection for QVC. "You're able to do some things with faux fur you can't do with real fur. Like, you would never make something in real leopard or cheetah."

Quality in (fake) details

The stigma once attached to fake fur -- it had a reputation of being thick, matted and sticky -- has mostly diminished. In fact, the material has evolved into something that looks and feels rather luxurious.

Two of the most cited manufacturers of "high faux" are France-based Tissavel, which has been making fake fur since the 1950s and supplies Chanel and Prada with custom-made material, and New York-based Tiger J, which makes fake fur for Naeem Khan, Dennis Basso, Rachel Zoe and Adrienne Landau's lines.

Tiger J design director Guillaume Poupart says there are two main characteristics of high-quality fake fur: softness and resilience (meaning the fibers bounce back to their original form after being touched). In addition, a higher density of fibers is usually equated with a higher quality.

"It gives faux fur a more realistic look and adds to the softness," Poupart says.