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Retailers Neiman Marcus, DrJays.com, and Eminent (a.k.a. Revolve Clothing) settled federal claims that they had mislabeled real fur as fake fur yesterday, leading the New York Times to ask the natural question: WTF is up with that?
There has been increasing incidence of retailers like those above along with Dillards and most recently Century21 taking the traditionally more expensive/high-end real stuff and labeling them "faux." Basically, the NYTs attributes the switch to the market: faux has finally tipped into the more covetable end of the fur spectrum. So the ripple affect extends to China in which "there are fur farms [...] that raise dogs for clothing that is labeled as fake fur here in the U.S. because that's what the market best responds to," according to Dan Mathews, a senior vice president with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, all the way up to retailers themselves who omit the word "fur" in product descriptions. The more you know.
· Real Fur, Masquerading as Faux [NYTimes]
· Oops: Century 21 is Outed for Mislabeling Fur Products [Racked]