Saks Fifth Avenue To Stop Selling Fur

The iconic luxury department store commits to a fur-free policy, which will phase out the sale of fur products and close the stores’ fur salons.

Luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue has announced a new fur-free policy that will phase out the sale of any products that use animal fur.

The iconic brand will close all of its fur salons by the end of fiscal 2021. Saks Fifth Avenue says it will also work closely with its vendor partners to phase out the sale of fur products both online and in store by the end of fiscal 2022.

"Across the Saks Fifth Avenue experience, we evaluate a number of factors when making decisions about our assortment, including customer preferences and societal shifts," Tracy Margolies, Chief Merchandising Officer for Saks, explains. "We recognize that trends constantly evolve, and that the sale of fur remains a significant social issue. As such, eliminating it from our assortment is the right step for us to take at this time."

It is estimated that more than 100 million animals are killed for their fur every year as part of the global fur trade, including coyote, mink, raccoon dog, and chinchilla. 

But Saks’ announcement marks the latest blow to the fur industry, which has faced mounting fur bans and falling consumer demand in recent years. California became the first U.S. state to ban the sale of fur back in 2019, and an overwhelming number of fashion designers, brands, and retailers have also dropped fur, including Gucci, Versace, and Macy’s. 

Calls to ban fur farms have only intensified since the onset of the current COVID-19 pandemic, which brought global awareness to the dangers of the coronavirus mutating in animals on fur farms and passing it back to humans. This danger has already led to the likes of the Netherlands to cull hundreds of thousands of mink on fur farms.

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