The look is set to last, with the Fall/Winter 2025 shows at Paris Womenswear Fashion Week over the last 10 days showcasing the material in almost every conceivable way.

Whether it was via stoles, long luxuriant coats, or embellishments on jackets or accessories, the fur look once associated with mob wives, Jackie Kennedy, Elizabeth Taylor and European aristocrats has been thoroughly revived.

The high-end imitation version is now so realistic that many observers are unable to distinguish it from the real thing, providing a boon for manufacturers such as France-based Ecopel.

"Since last winter, every brand, from luxury houses to mainstream labels like Zara, has been offering an unprecedented number of faux fur pieces," Ecopel CEO and founder Christopher Sarfati, who supplies around 300 brands, told AFP.

The fur look had almost disappeared due to concerns about animal welfare, with major brands such as Saint Laurent, Gucci and Chanel dropping it altogether and London Fashion Week introducing a ban on its catwalks.

Real fur isn't banned in Paris, and charities including PETA and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation protested last week in the French capital about the "return of fur".

They worry that the ubiquity of replica fur will spark interest in real animal skins in the fashion industry, reversing the decades-long decline of a product that became a byword for cruelty.

- Upcycling -

"I think faux fur is cooler. It's more beautiful. And we don't approve of animal cruelty," said Bryn Taubensee and Patric DiCaprio, designers of the US-based Vaquera label, which presented a very fur-heavy collection this week in Paris.

Leading French fashion journalist Matthieu Bobard Deliere said: "I think you can count the brands still using real fur on the runways on one hand."

According to Ecopel, which closely monitors the market, 89 percent of fur seen at Milan Fashion Week was faux, compared to 62 percent in New York.

Two brands which featured real fur during Paris Fashion Week -- newcomer Hodakova run by Swedish designer Ellen Hodakova Larsson and Gabriela Hearst from Uruguay -- both said they were upcycling existing skins.

Some designers argue that this is more environmentally friendly, as they are not relying on faux fur which is usually made from polyester and other oil-based synthetic fibres.

"Repurposed vintage mink was unstitched and then painstakingly reassembled by hand in a family-run atelier," Hearst said of the mink coat that featured in her show.

The Parisian fur store Sam Rone told AFP that its sales have increased since last year.

Second-hand fur is in high demand, especially among Gen Z, which loves vintage fashion, with some now rummaging through their grandmothers' wardrobes.

If real fur has animal cruelty drawbacks and fake fur is polluting, the solution for the ethically minded consumer would appear to be new non-plastic varieties being developed.

Ecopel claims to have found a solution with the launch of 100-percent plant-based faux fur.

"Brands will no longer be able to say 'We don’t use faux fur because it’s made of polyester and petroleum'," Sarfati explained.

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© Agence France-Presse

The ambitious restoration of the derelict Argo factory has made it "one of the most beautiful buildings of Tehran", said architect Nazanin Amirian, visiting the latest exhibition there.

While the former factory with its towering chimney and cavernous cellar has been given a new life, many other historic buildings in the Iranian capital face a grimmer fate.

"We hoped restoring Argo would inspire others to preserve similar buildings," said Hamid Reza Pejman, director of the Pejman Foundation that took on the project.

But "economic conditions are tough", said Pejman, after years of crippling sanctions and with no government funding to support restoration endeavours.

Established more than a century ago, the Argo factory had produced one of Iran's oldest and biggest beer brands before falling into disuse.

It had ceased operations just a few years before the 1979 Islamic revolution, which toppled Iran's Western-backed shah and ushered in a strict ban on the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

The brand itself lives on alcohol-free, with rights to the Argo logo transferred to a local beverage company, Pejman said.

He said that since the factory was "out of operation" at the time, it was spared the fate of some other breweries which were set ablaze during the revolution.

Ever since the Islamic republic banned alcohol, bootleg beverages proliferated on the black market, with toxic methanol occasionally contaminating the natural ethanol and resulting in mass poisonings.

- 'Transform the city' -

Left a crumbling structure of weathered brick walls that also served as a shelter for homeless people, the Argo building was eventually purchased by the Pejman Foundation in 2016.

Its brick walls and chimney were restored, keeping their distinct industrial look, while other parts like the roof had to be entirely rebuilt.

Since 2020, the building has been open to the public as a museum, featuring local and international artists.

In a nod to its past life, the Argo arts centre offers non-alcoholic beer for sale.

The current exhibition is a collection of installation works, sculptures and paintings by Iranian multidisciplinary artist Maryam Amini.

Over the years, the building has been swallowed by Tehran's rapid urban expansion, now surrounded by high-rises, modern cafes and sprawling commercial centres in one of the city's busiest neighbourhoods.

Much like the Argo factory until 2016, some of Tehran's historic buildings including old movie theatres have been abandoned for years, largely due to economic hardship.

Others were demolished as shifting urban priorities have favoured modern developments over restoration.

Amir Ali Izadi, a 43-year-old artist visiting the factory-turned-museum, expressed his hope that similar buildings would undergo renovation.

"It would transform the city's landscape," he said.

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© Agence France-Presse