RIVALS IN FUR:

COMPETING TRADE SHOWS PUT LOCAL FURRIERS IN A TOUGH SPOT.

The claws are out. Montreal’s once flourishing fur industry, fighting for market share, is also mired in infighting.

Two rival trade shows have sprouted in the wake of last year’s demise of NAFFEM — the North American Fur and Fashion Exhibition Montreal — leaving fur manufacturers caught in the middle.

On one side is the Fur Council of Canada and its longtime executive vice-president, Alan Herscovici, which ran NAFFEM for 31 years before reinventing the trade show this season as StyleLab, targeting luxury boutiques as fur is increasingly integrated into fashion collections.

On the other side is Mitch Fazekas of Mitchie’s Matchings, a fur accessories company, who, working with partners, is rolling out the Outerwear Extravaganza Sunday in Montreal. Last year, Fazekas helped organize a trade show in Chicago to rival NAFFEM, drawing away furriers and retailers from Montreal and beyond. “I really want to see one show,’’ said an impassioned Angelo Argiriou, one of four brothers in a family firm that has made fur garments since 1980. Sitting in a red velvet chair in the storefront of his small Bleury St. factory, Argiriou recalled the glory days of the fur industry — and its decline. He was disappointed, to put it mildly, in the fur council’s show.

“You call it StyleLab,” he said, growing more heated. “This is a different direction, making us (furriers) disappear. Where is the fur?

“Boutique is boutique. I am selling fur.”

At StyleLab last month, Dominic and Joe Sciortino of Luna Furs also lamented the divided market.

“We have no choice. We’re in business,’’ Joe Sciortino said of their decision to do both Montreal shows, as well as Chicago.

In Montreal, everybody will suffer, the Sciortino brothers agreed.

Although Fazekas has said he wanted to save the industry, Dominic Sciortino is not convinced. “I don’t know how he’s going to save the industry by splitting it up.”

JOHN MAHONEY/ GAZETTE PHOTO Zuki’s colourful sheared beavers are among the high-end furs that give Montreal and Canada their international reputation for quality.

PIERRE OBENDRAUF/ THE GAZETTE Montreal furriers, brothers Angelo, Thomas and Thanasi Argiriou, want to see one annual trade show, not two.

ALLEN MCINNIS / THE GAZETTE Anissa Marcanio, left, and her mother Marisa Minicucci of Minicuccu and Marcanio display their designs at the StyleLab trade show in Montreal last month.

PETER MCCABE / THE GAZETTE Mitch Fazekas, left, and Rookie Bernstein at the last NAFFEM trade show last year. Fazekas helped organize a new show in Montreal this Sunday.