This photo and those that follow were taken by Joseph Selle at or near San Francisco’s Union Square in the late 1950s. All Selle images are courtesy of Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester NY.

Farewell to the Fur Follies that Defined Fashion in the Fifties

California has now become the first state in the nation to ban the manufacture or sale of animal fur garments. There are some notable exemptions to the law. Sales of real fur are allowed in nonprofit thrift stores, secondhand stores, and pawn shops. And, you can still wear fur without penalty. Still, for a state that as recently as 2017 led the nation in real-fur sales, it’s a turning point.

The state ban reflects changing market tastes as well as health and ethical concerns. Younger consumers, who’ve become disinterested in often expensive, real-fur clothing and more alert to the cruelties of fur farming, have turned their backs on a once flourishing industry. Health experts have other worries: by forcing solitary animals like minks into crowded pens, fur farming creates a dangerous breeding ground for mutated pathogens that could eventually infect humans.

Circle back to the 1950s though and in cities like San Francisco, fur coats, jackets, wraps, and stoles were regular sights on downtown streets. Available in different shades and styles, fur garments signaled elegance, status, and sophistication.

Indeed, I still recall watching my grandmother as she prepared for a ferry ride across San Francisco Bay to shop in “The City.” She flung her fox stole with a grand sweeping motion that…