MOLESKIN RETURNS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1940, Page 8

MOLESKIN RETURNS

IN FASHION AGAIN. Moleskin may soon take its place among the smart furs again. Butcher’s rabbit is another entrant in the fur fashion stakes. Years ago smart women were glad to wear moleskin. Its popularity faded, but now the demand for moleskin is growing steadily. Paris dyes it in brilliant colours and pieces it together to make plaid fur coats. English designers use dyed moleskin for short string jackets. Moleskin is being asked for more and more. The war is the reason. Since September fur exports have been severely restricted. There is an embargo on dressed and dyed furs. Nothing comes from Russia. The whole output of the Leningrad sale, to the value of about £7,000,000 went to New York. Among cheaper furs, supplies of beaver, lamb and nutria lamb —the best of which came from Hungary and were used for less expensive coats — have stopped altogether. So furriers have had to look for an attractive and inexpensive fur to help fill the gaps in fur imports. Properly handled and matched, moleskin makes up into sleek, smart and young-looking wraps. Since the war the imports of moleskin from Holland and Italy have dwindled almost to nothing. No skin comes from France; but the best moleskins have always been Scotch—a term ■which includes all English moleskins. As for butcher’s rabbit, when it is skilfully dressed, dyed and disguised only an expert would detect its origin. Moles and rabbits are not the only skins used to fill the gaps left by the embargo on furs. Imports of Indian lamb have gone up rapidly. South-west Africa sends Persian lamb to the value of about three-quarters of a million pounds a year.