In Olympic host village Cortina, wearing fur never went out of style

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Snoop Dogg brought heaps of outerwear with him to the Milan Cortina Olympic Games. A jacket with the face of snowboarder Chloe Kim, and another with bobsledder Kaysha Love. But something he picked up in Cortina was an accoutrement to fit seamlessly into the local scene: a fur hat.

Among the upscale mountain towns dotting the Dolomites, fashion and fur have been cultural staples for as long as anyone can remember. In “For Your Eyes Only,” parts of which were filmed in Cortina, James Bond donned fur-trimmed jackets, and many of the actresses wore get-ups of head-to-toe fur. Along Cortina's pedestrian-only main street, most clothing stores display fur — whether real or synthetic — in their windows.

Paola De Leidi, of Trieste, breezed into one boutique just off the Corso Italia on Feb. 14 with the ease of someone returning home after a winter's walk.

For seasonal visitors like De Leidi, 62, the Winter Games are a mere sideshow to their annual fur-finding pilgrimage. The youthful retiree has been a faithful client of this store for 25 years and stows her collection in a designated “Cortina” closet — wearable only within the bubble where a fur-positive attitude has survived animal rights activists’ largely successful campaigns.

Much of the world has moved to synthetic alternatives — for environmental and ethical reasons — and the EU is mulling a measure to shut down fur farms and much of the fur trade.

“I like to come here and buy strange things, like pink furs, or panther!" De Leidi said. “Now, with all the green people (environmentalists) and everything, I just feel safe going around here.”

And there's an added draw, said Marco Molinari, the shopkeeper.

“Here in the mountains you’re truly free,” he said. “When you walk along the street, you don’t have the anxiety of being robbed.”

Cortina, where wearing animal furs is still stylish

After greeting his longtime client, Molinari stripped a mannequin of its leopard-spotted coat with fluffy green trim and wraps it around De Leidi’s petite figure. The piece is made from what the Italians call “gatto lippi,” a small and spotted feline bearing a striking resemblance to a house cat.

Coats of mink, lynx, wolf, sable and ocelot covered the walls of his store, a branch of fashion house Pajaro, one of several high-end fur boutiques in town. The coats can cost as much as 80,000 euros ($94,000).

A statue of a pug in the store is swaddled in a sweater of kangaroo skin. A carving of a howling bear doubles as a hat rack, supporting cloudlike hats of pink fur.

At Pajaro, insurance broker Stefano Vannicola from the city of Ascoli Piceno tried on a coat of Canadian lynx. He said he had already swiped the credit card, but the boutique was holding the piece until it could appear at an event before Milan Fashion Week at the end of February.

Vannicola and Molinari both declined to disclose the sale price.

Potential fur ban gains steam, legislatively and among fashion houses

It's growing increasingly rare for a coat like Vannicola's to be seen anywhere near fashion runways.

According to the international non-profit Fur Free Alliance, more than 1,600 clothing retailers have agreed to stop selling furs. The group says that brands including Gucci, Chanel, Moncler, Michael Kors and Prada have shown interest in switching to alternatives.

What's more, the European Commission is planning to announce a decision on banning the holding and killing of mink, foxes, raccoon, dogs and chinchilla, and marketing of fur products from those animals, according to its website. It may also propose legislation to raise minimum standards for the keeping of animals in fur farms.

Bans on the trade of cat and dog fur ban already exist in the EU and the U.S.

Snoop Dogg joins the craze

During Snoop's fleeting stint in Cortina, he bought a Pajaro fur hat for roughly 300 euros, said Molinari, who had a near-identical model in his shop.

Snoop has long incorporated fur coats and hats into his flamboyant personal style, frequently wearing them at public appearances, red carpets and performances throughout his career. His publicist didn't immediately respond to the AP's request to confirm his purchase at Pajaro.

The rapper debuted the hat online in an Instagram video showing his meeting with Stanley Tucci, famously a fashion aficionado. Tucci lauds the look and Snoop spends the rest of the video with the hat on while sitting at one of Cortina’s ornate Italian bars (where he orders gin and juice).

Perhaps unknowingly, the star was partaking in a fashion tradition set by the dames of Cortina long ago.

In Cortina, furs are a perennial sight

Furs have always been a staple of winter fashion in Cortina, and many of those people wear on the streets come from their grandparents.

Two such women, Marina Bozzoli, 82, and Orietta Guarini, 83, watched the world go by Sunday in front of the glitzy “Cooperativa,” the mall where fans are scrambling wildly for Team Italy jackets, made by Armani's sportswear brand, going for 700 euros a pop. One tourist complained loudly that they were out of extra smalls — she needed one to fit her toddler.

Bozzoli and Guarini, standing nearby, said they'd been coming to Cortina since they were babies, watching it transform from a small mountain town where women wore petticoats and long dresses to a playground for the rich and famous.

As for the coats? Guarini said they're nothing new.

“Everything has changed,” she said, wearing an elaborate white fur topped with a jaunty, navy baseball cap. “But the furs have always been here.” ___

AP writer Tim Reynolds and AP photographer Alessandra Tarantino contributed to this report from Cortina, along with Colleen Barry in Milan and Jonathan Landrum in Los Angeles.