What happened to the stigma of wearing fur?

After years of protests and strides in fake skins, vintage furs are popping up all over

- JESSICA IREDALE

A FEW WEEKS before the Manhattan Vintage Show opened this month, its owner, Amy Abrams, was predicting a "fur-a-palooza," with vendors fielding an uptick in demand for fur. "It's happening now," she said. The racks of fox, mink and Mongolian at booths, including the Igala NYC and the Jennie Walker Archive, which was selling a sable coat for $2,495, were swarmed by shoppers, many already wearing fur.

One shopper, Lulu Dinh of Jersey City, New Jersey, bought her chinchilla coat years ago from 1stDibs. With a collection of about 10 furs acquired over the years, she wasn't in the market for anything new. "I already have the best," she said.

The Manhattan Vintage fur-a-palooza was not an isolated incident. As temperatures in New York plunged into the teens and 20s in January, women and men all over town were busting their furs out of storage in what felt like an abrupt reversal in social attitudes.

After decades of coordinated campaigning, involving protests and even personal attacks outside stores and fashion shows, at workplaces and people's homes, the anti-fur movement, led by organizations like PETA, seemed to have finally shifted the tides in their favor. Many brands, and customers, decided being fur-free was a better look.