West Hollywood Fur Ban Passed
The City Council of West Hollywood, Calif., on Nov. 21, passed the first municipal ban on fur apparel in the United States.
The trade group Fur Information Council of America, which is headquartered in West Hollywood, will explore legal and political challenges to the new law, said Keith Kaplan, FICA’s executive director.
“The business community is beginning to look at new slates of candidates,” Kaplan said. “We’ll make sure that we won’t have representatives who impose their personal, moral agendas upon the backs of business.”
The ban passed with three councilmembers supporting the ban, one councilmember opposing it, and another was absent. The sale of new fur apparel—including coats, vests, hats, scarves and boots—will be illegal in West Hollywood when the ban takes effect in September 2013.
The sale of vintage fur clothes will be exempt from the new ban.How the ban will be enforced has yet to be spelled out. It might be treated as a code violation, and retailers could be ticketed for selling the banned apparel.
Mayor John Duran called for an economic-impact study to judge how the ban will affect the city’s fashion retailers, which include boutiques for John Varvatos, Balenciaga and Alberta Ferretti. The City Council will explore findings of the impact report before the law will be enforced.
West Hollywood’s Arcade Boutique sells fur fashions, and store director Lindsay Lebby said high-fashion boutiques will be driven away from doing business in the city. “This really goes against the core of what West Hollywood stands for and for the freedom of choice that the city was built on,” she said.—A.A.
