Craftsman one of last of a dying breed

At his East Memphis shop, furrier Jim Holloway was ironing muskrat to make a man's coat. Later, he used a fur knife to cut pelts, some of which he buys from trappers in this region, and sewed pieces together on a 1930s looping machine.

Furrier Jim Holloway of Holloway Furs can turn a mink coat into a bomber jacket (for $300 to $700), or turn a mink stole into a vest ($700 to $800).

Holloway is one of the last of a dying breed, a furrier who does his own handiwork -- designing, cutting and sewing fur coats and other items. He has been especially busy lately because fur, both real and faux, is a big fall fashion trend.

"I've never seen so many women bringing magazine clippings," he said. Many want fur trim added to their coats or to have old mink stoles turned into trendy vests.

Holloway grew up in Water Valley, Miss., where he was a trapper from age 12 to 30. He caught raccoon, fox, bobcat, beaver and mink, stretched and dried the skins and sold them on the open market.

He came to Memphis in 1984 and apprenticed with now-deceased master furriers Hewlett Lewers for two years and Grady Horton for seven. In 1988, he also worked as a master furrier for King Furs, restyling, altering and repairing furs and overseeing the cleaning. In 1992, he started his own business, Holloway Fur Co., which is now at 404 Perkins Ext.

He's an animal lover who has a menagerie of pets, as well as two horses he keeps in Water Valley, where he owns four log cabins. They were handbuilt by a friend and trapper who went to Alaska to start a bear-hunting service.

"I don't think any furrier I ever knew got as excited about it as I did," said Holloway, who can't stop talking about furs. "When you love something, you eat, sleep and breathe it," he said.

Flipping over a top-quality mink coat, he exposed thousands of short seams that branched through it like veins. The coat was "let out," which means it was made by cutting fur in narrow strips and stitching them together in such a way that it produces a coat that

appears to be seamless. It may take him 180 to 220 hours to make such a coat.

He gets some help from his only assistant, Jimmie Morris, who does finishing work and embroidery.

"True furriers are very rare," said Al Hernandez, furrier at Fletcher & Bensky Furs in Little Rock, the largest full-service furrier in Arkansas. "Holloway is excellent. He makes it as if he were going to wear it himself."

Most American furriers are in New York, said Memphian Greg Gang, a retired millwork manufacturer who grew up in his family's fur trade business in New York and created fur coats himself for 10 years. Americans and Canadians still make the best fur coats, he said, but their numbers are dwindling for lack of apprentices. Young people don't care to learn the craft.

Gang helped teach Holloway cutting and sewing, "but he is far better than I ever was," he said. "He understands couture, style, trends and matching furs," which takes great skill, especially when restyling an old fur.

Holloway views trapping and hunting as part of the ecosystem. He says sometimes those are the most humane ways to handle the overpopulation of beaver and deer that damage crops and land and predators such as fox, bobcat and raccoon that eat turkey eggs, among other things.

"For every hunter and trapper, the No. 1 concern is that the species be preserved and properly managed so the sport never goes away," he said.

Holloway turns mink jackets into fashionable bomber jackets and made a lining for one man's Burberry jacket out of his wife's old mink coat. Old furs may also become fur pillows and throw rugs. He's especially proud of his custom beaver blankets.

Prices vary, but in general, collars and cuffs from his recycled minks can be added to a coat for about $300 to $700, depending on the size of the collar. A mink stole can be turned into a vest for $700 to $800.

Restyling a mink coat can cost anywhere from $150 to $1,500, depending partly on whether the coat must be enlarged. But restyling may be worthwhile since mink coats have doubled in price in the last 10 years, he said, mainly because of growing demand from China.

Holloway said his craft dates to the 1400s. But the first master furrier may go back much further. He keeps Genesis 3:21 carved in wood on his front desk: "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed them."

LEAVE it to fashionistas to try on new buzzwords like they’re going out of style

LEAVE it to fashionistas to try on new buzzwords like they’re going out of style. Whether it was our bromance with heritage brands, or the shellacking that some collaborations took, 2010 saw no shortage of P.R.-driven catchphrases and trendy terms. As with all fads, it’s time to put some to rest.

Couture: Calling something “couture” doesn’t make it hand-sewn or high class. Yet the word popped up everywhere last year, from discount Web sites to Canal Street pushcarts. It’s even uttered repeatedly on HSN and QVC to describe handbags, dresses and almost anything else. You can trust that the rayon and polyester cape selling for $49.95 was not hand-stitched by petite seamstresses in a Parisian atelier.

Bespoke: A close runner-up to “couture.” Used by retailers to make their merchandise seem classier, although the items in question are not literally made to order.

Statement outfits: Does your clothing speak louder than words? That seemed to be the mantra chanted by fashion lemmings, who kept referring to attention-grabbing pieces as “statements.”

Smoldering: O.K., your makeup is hot. Your outfit is hotter. You are about to combust. We get it.

Pop-up: It was the year of the pop-up store — Shiseido and AllSaints had them, as did Zimmermann swimwear in SoHo and Liberty of London for Target. Blame it on empty storefronts and skittish retailers, but the hit-and-run retail concept swept the world’s fashion capitals, to the point of losing its novelty.

Fashionista: The word has gone from describing a class of urban style-conscientious sophisticates to becoming a lazy and cheap byword for anyone with a modicum of taste. (See “hipster.”)

Collaborations: H&M and Alber Elbaz; Gap and Stella McCartney; Jason Wu and Tse; Opening Ceremony and [insert name here]. Collaborations went gaga in 2010, making it seem as if solo designing were a thing of the past.

Concept store: Used to describe any store that deviated in the slightest from the norm, whether it was Ann Taylor’s “concept store” in the Flatiron district that featured 10 design finalists, or the OC Concept Store on Madison Avenue that sells watches and yachts. But aren’t all stores supposed to have a concept? Just checking.

Geek-chic: If geeks rule the world, it was only a matter of time before they conquered fashion. In 2010, anyone who sported thick-framed glasses, cardigans and T-shirts with nerdy references was instantly labeled “geek-chic.” The hip-to-be-square term has also become a popular Twitter hashtag. #done.

Eco-fashion: Stella McCartney made vegan platform shoes out of faux leather and cork; Michael Kors used organic cashmeres and cottons in his resort collection. Responsible design never gets old, but this term has.

D.I.Y. fashion: It’s not always necessary to knit your own mittens. And not everyone becomes a best seller on Etsy.com. Save your sanity by going to Urban Outfitters and spending the $8.

Heritage: Waxed Barbour jackets. Red Wing boots. Woolrich sweaters. Classic Americana ruled men’s runways in 2010 — and the cash registers at retail behemoths like J. Crew. But perhaps the only thing more played out than another lumberjack-chic man with a candy-colored ax was this word, trotted out to label the retro-trend.

less denim, more sturdy trousers

Not since the 1990s has the fashion world been so enamored with trousers. Everyone from Hannah McGibbon at Chloé to Christophe Decarnin at Balmain to Patrick Robinson at the Gap emphasized pants this fall.

"It's a wardrobe essential for real women today," MacGibbon told Elle magazine of her penchant for pants, adding that her target customer isn't a 'fantasy' woman: "Women have demanding lifestyles."

Pants have long been regarded as a liberating garment, and jeans have always been top sellers season-round. But this fall, the emphasis is off denim and on sturdy trousers with a more grown-up, relaxed silhouette.

Riding on the trend, both mass market and high-fashion labels are marketing collections centered around the "perfect" pant. This past September, Gap rolled out its line of "Black Magic Pants," a collection in seven shapes and styles that promises to flatter every body type out there. Among the offerings is "The Perfect Trouser" ($59.50, or 45 euros), which Gap describes as: "A perfectly tailored silhouette gives way to a slightly flared leg."

And on December 15, Phoebe Philo, the creative director of the French house Céline, launched worldwide a collection of five pants she deems "building blocks" for every modern woman's wardrobe. Dubbed "Five Perfect Trousers," the styles include a cropped tube leg (370 euros, or $489), a classic tapered leg (420 euros, or $555), a high-waisted wide leg (570 euros, or $753), a menswear-inspired straight leg (590 euros, or $780), and a pleated tapered leg (440 euros, or $582). Each of the pants feature Philo's signature expert tailoring and channel Céline's minimalist chic aesthetic. According to the Wall Street Journal, the five-piece collection will be permanently available with slight changes in fabric and style according to the season.