The IFTF was responsible for the 12-page fur promotions in the September issues of British and American Vogue, featuring coats by everyone from Dolce & Gabbana to Jil Sander and from Roberto Cavalli to Prada.The BFTA issued a press release at the time, congratulating its sister organisation on its efforts. “Worldwide fur sales are expected to comfortably exceed $10bn this year,” it read, “spurred on by a massive advertising campaign launched by the IFTF.” Just as it is Peta’s and Respect for Animals’ job to promote a negative image of the fur trade, organisations such as the BFTA and IFTF work extremely hard and invest a huge amount of money to persuade the world that fur is fashionable once more.But is it? “In Europe, fur has never really gone away,” Glover argues, and it is true that the autumn/winter collections in Milan, in particular, and to a lesser extent in New York and Paris, too, have always provided the opportunity to showcase increasingly sophisticated techniques in the handling of animal skin. For those who prefer their dead animals not to look like dead animals, fur is shaved and dyed every colour of the rainbow. Less shy and retiring fashion fur-consumers won’t be disappointed, either. The full-length, full-on variety is still supplied by everyone from Fendi – perhaps the most famous Italian fur house – to Givenchy, which features far more fur than it used to but is making up for lost time with everything from fur jackets and coats to bags positively weighed down with fox tails.What is more surprising is the claim that the British, once vehemently opposed to the wearing of fur, are coming round to it again. The argument goes that the press in this country, formerly at least careful about carrying fur advertising, can no longer afford to be so principled. Celebrity endorsement in London, meanwhile, has never been so high-profile, with everyone from Kate Moss to Madonna proud to flaunt fur.

“That’s because they’re given it,” says Glover, matter-of-factly.Still, at London fashion week, in February, Julien Macdonald showed more fur than has ever before been seen on a British catwalk. Even the supposedly cool, cult label House of Jazz featured fur gilets and sky-high boots from which large fox-fur pom-poms bounced brazenly. Hazel Robinson, one half of the House of Jazz design team, defends her position thus “As I see it, House of Jazz is a designer, luxury label. The most luxurious thing you can have in a collection, along with rich embroideries and beading, is fur I don’t have an issue with it. I’m not a vegetarian and I wear leather shoes.”Ethical viewpoints aside, as a fairly new, independent label, House of Jazz is hardly rolling in cash or indeed the raw materials needed to come up with its clothes. With that in mind, Saga Furs of Scandinavia has been only too happy to step in.

The Denmark-based company, which boasted a turnover of $1bn last year and produces 66 per cent of the world’s mink and 61 per cent of the world’s fox, has done more to re-establish fur on designer catwalks – and that includes London catwalks – than would recently have been imaginable. At the autumn/winter London collections alone, Saga gave both the fur itself and the technical expertise to turn it into designer garments to Julien Macdonald, Markus Lupfer, Russell Sage, Robert Cary-Williams and, of course, House of Jazz.In 1988, the fur company – a coalition of Scandinavian mink and fox farmers – opened a research centre outside the Danish capital, with the aim of reintroducing fur into fashion Since that time, it appears to have done just that. As well as providing fur to all the aforementioned British designers, Saga has also supplied London fashion colleges including the Royal College of Art and Central Saint Martins, ensuring that it targets emerging talent early. Its workshops have been attended by the design teams of Christian Dior, Versace and Max Mara, to name just three.