Nature Girl Shags the Boys -- Rowwrrrrr!
Charly Calder designs fake furs for the adventurous man
By Debbi Gardiner

When Charly Calder, a successful Taiwanese fashion designer, immigrated to the United States from Taipei six years ago and looked into a department store window, she nearly cried.

“Everyone dresses down here,” said Calder, 40. “I felt especially sorry for men. Their fashion is so boring.”

Keen to save American men from their plight of polo shirts, khakis and denims, an entrepreneurial Calder launched her own fake fur coat and ‘70s clothing collection for men after finishing her assignment with the clothier Bebe.

According to Calder, fur coats are a natural and making a definite comeback. What really inspired her was an awareness that fashion-conscious American men really crave something different in their wardrobes.

“So many guys tell me, ‘I have money. I would like to dress in something fun, but I have no where to shop for something exciting.’ ”

If anyone could liven up American men’s fashion, it is Calder. At 26, she had already launched a multimillion-dollar fashion company from scratch, gaining her instant fame in Taipei. Yet when she arrived in the United States with her Versace- like portfolio, it was a struggle at the start. But now, with six years designing experience with large U.S. fashion corporations like Bebe and Esprit, Calder is ready to do her own unique designs.

Male trendsetters will find the ‘Charly Calder’ fake fur-coat collection as alternative as it gets. Currently offering 25 different styles, these elegant coats come in a variety of lengths, animal prints and fake mink in black, gold and brown, or white. Priced from $400 to $900, the coats are available by order through Calder’s San Francisco showroom.

Calder says that any kind of man looks good in fur. “As soon as they wear the fur coat, they change their style,” she says. “The coats create a totally new image for the man.”

And fake fur coats are more practical than you would think. Company President Sasha Tosic, 24, says that because the fur is fake, the coats aren’t uncomfortably hot and can be worn out most of the year. San Francisco’s cool and foggy climate is ideal for a fake fur. And while some of the coats are flamboyant, others are tame and can be worn almost anywhere -- even to work.

“Some of our fur coats offer more conservative looks, such as our black seal coat, which is a short, black-hair blazer which can be worn with a tie and white shirt,” Tosic says. “Also, we have a Hollywood silver mink -- beautiful, soft silver mink medium hair from France. This is a great sell because it is close to the body and a shiny combination of black and shorter hair. Some coats literally look like the coat of a gray wolf and beaver.”

Thus far, the responses have been positive.

“It’s very interesting,” Calder says. “The men go crazy. They say they’ve never seen anything like it before. I think it taps into the male instinct to hunt animals, like they did 2,000 years ago.”

Women seem to go nuts, too. Calder believes that instinctively, women find men in fur exciting.

“Times have changed when men have to be macho,” she says. “Now that women are more financially self sufficient, they are looking for men who are nice and fun with a fresh attitude. ”

David Stewart, a 33- year old San Francisco computer consultant and business owner, couldn’t agree more.

“Women respond typically very well to my fur coats,” said Stewart, one of Calder’s best customers. “They have good comments like: ‘I really love the softness of your coat.’ … Then they want to touch and stroke it … I think it’s very seductive for them.”

Being a man that likes variety, Stewart bought five coats -- three black ones at all different lengths, a soft burgundy one and one that he describes as “totally outrageous” -- a long, salt-and-pepper colored jacket.

While Stewart finds that he can’t wear the coats everywhere, he says they are best in upscale locations like nightclubs and private parties -- or anywhere where there are fashion-conscious people.

“If you wear these coats to a dive bar, you’re going to get a lot of strange looks,” he says. “It’s a pretty flamboyant thing.”

But in a city as artistic and open-minded a San Francisco, marketing men’s fake-fur coats hasn’t been too difficult. The best part is that there is no real competition. Tosic points out that Gucci and Versace offered a black, short-hair blazer for men in their fall ’98 collections, but they came in only one style and cost about $3,000.

The biggest marketing challenge seems to be breaking down the misconceptions about fur. Convincing people that the fabrics are 100 percent animal-friendly -- but convincing fakes -- was one barrier. Men convinced that fur coats are feminine may also take some persuading before they see that the coats are elegant and actually quite raunchy. But by recruiting models and nightclub managers to wear the coats around town and at their jobs, Tosic has heard rave reviews.

Calder says she is looking into launching her fur coats and coordinating shirts and pants with a ’70s flair in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

“The immediate goal is to find a business investor to back us opening a boutique here in the city,” Tosic says. “At the same time we will sell fur coats wholesale to high-end stores all over the U.S., primarily in New York.”

Tosic remains optimistic and thinks that Charly’s fur coats will become as popular as men’s leather coats.

Visit Charly Calder’s Web site at http:// www.charly.cc. (Only 5 percent of Calder’s collection is shown on the Web site.) For appointments to see the Calder’s fashions, please call Sasha Tosic at 415-681-1108 or e-mail him at stosic@charly.cc.