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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It seemed higher end to me circa 1980 when my aunt was the only person I knew who had the catalogue and every time we went to her house I’d page through it and wish I could have Gloria Vanderbilt jeans.[/quote]

It was a great catalogue. My mom was on the mailing list. She was a SAHM in a 5 bedroom colonial in a DC suburb with kids in private school and a breadwinner husband with a white collar career. My mom also shopped at Lord & Taylor, Bloomingdales, and Woodies/Hechts/Macys. [/quote]

PP with the long post.  Yes, this is a person from a demographic who would buy bridge sportswear.  Core UMC department store shopper.  Too financially prudent to shop in the Saks/Neiman Marcus price range.  If they wanted that price range for a special occasion, they might have moved to the most expensive brands at their customary store.  Generations earlier, this demographic might have considered owning at least one fur.  Like a mink jacket.[/quote]

I mean, most women had a fur coat in the 1950s/60s/70s/80s.

Fur didn’t go out of style until the 90s.

I am rewatching the 1980s sitcom Kate & Allie on Prime, and there’s an episode centered around a fur coat. They were all over 1980s tv. The Reagan 80s were all about overtly showy luxury/wealth. [/quote]

PP.  Disagree re: ubiquity of furs.  Consider this 1952 cultural touchstone:

Richard Nixon's "respectable Republican cloth coat" remark came from his famous 1952 "Checkers speech," where he defended himself against allegations of a secret campaign fund. By stating his wife, Pat, owned a cloth coat rather than a mink, he projected a "plain folks" image to contrast with elitism, highlighting values of frugality and integrity.

Quote: "I should say this, that Pat doesn't have a mink coat. But she does have a respectable Republican cloth coat, and I always tell her she'd look good in anything," according to The American Presidency Project.

My paternal grandma had a mink jacket or coat from the 1940s.  My maternal grandmother had one of those capes made of pelts with real heads (do not know the name of this type of fur).  I never saw them wear these items during my lifetime.  My mom, born in the 40s, had one dress coat with a real fur collar when I was a toddler.

I remember people (including kids) with rabbit fur jackets in the 1970s.  That's the last "mass-market" fur I remember.

The PETA activists (including supermodel activists) began actively campaigning in the 1980s.  That was the beginning of the end for department store fur salons (= end of mass acceptance).  Independent fur salons hung on but much in the same vein as high-quality Oriental rug stores.

It's true that the Reagan years emphasized ostentatious wealth.  But also true that there were significant countertrends.

I looked up the Blackglama ad campaign.  It lasted until 1994.  This was a wildly successful campaign from a recall perspective  - the "Got Milk?" of the fur industry.  During these years, I only remember full-length furs in pictures of celebrities.  I also remember the high-quality fake fur appearing at fabric stores. No idea who used it for clothing since fur was very "Silent Generation".  I used fake fur to make puppets.

https://blackglama.org/bg/the-backstory.html#:~:text=The%20world%20took%20notice.,Legend%E2%80%9D%20wearing%20a%20different%20garment.

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