MOD Society Greensboro - Sept-Oct 2020
FUR CONNOISSEUR
2020-08-29 08:26:12
“The boutique is a gallery of masterworks in mink, sable, fox and cashmere.”
Working with fur is a rare gem of an art form, and Kriegsman Boutique and Luxury Outerwear is a rare gem of a place.
Located in Cornwallis Court Shopping Center in Greensboro, the boutique is equal parts retail store, design studio, garment-making shop and a gallery of masterworks in mink, sable, fox and cashmere. It is, in a word, a treasure, and has been for more than 90 years.
Kriegsman Boutique is the Carolinas’ oldest and most revered furrier. Its roots trace back to the 1870s in Bukovina, Austria, where brothers Abraham and Max Kriegsman were raised and trained in the family business. Their father and grandfather were prominent furriers in Austria, and when Abraham and Max immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s, they brought the family tradition with them. The two landed in New York City and found work, but after several years in the big city, Abraham responded to an ad seeking a furrier in Greensboro. Max soon followed, and the reunited brothers started their own business in 1928. The store was originally located on Washington Street in the Guilford Building downtown, two blocks from the train station.
Abraham’s son, David Kriegsman, runs the business today. As he recounts the history, he marvels at the nerve it must have taken for two young Jewish immigrants to move to the South and launch a business at the start of the Great Depression. Their risk-taking paid off , and Kriegsman Brothers quickly began a respected establishment, not just locally but across North Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic.
David went to work in the family business straight out of high school. He learned every aspect of the enterprise including sourcing, design, sewing, manufacturing and marketing. Importantly, he also inherited an abiding commitment to customer service. Serving and collaborating with customers is his favorite part of any given work day. “I enjoy the challenge of designing something for a customer,” he says. “I like the whole process of that: Listening to the customer, hearing what he or she is interested in, and then creating a garment that suits them, something they’re going to wear and enjoy for years to come.”
That sense of longevity is integral to Kriegsman and the fur industry as a whole. According to the Fur Information Council of America, a fur garment that is well cared for and properly stored can last 50 to 60 years, or even longer. Fur coats and wraps are quality attire that tend to get passed down to daughters, nieces, and grandchildren.
David sees it all the time, customers who bring in their mother’s or grandmother’s furs hoping for a stylish retrofit. “We design for their lifestyles today,” David says, recalling a woman from High Point who visited with her three daughters. She brought her mother’s fur coat with the goal of creating keepsakes for her girls. The result was a fur-trimmed cashmere cape for one, a vest for the second and a jacket for the third.
Winter weddings offer another opportunity for incorporating both style and sentiment. “We often have young women come to the shop who want to wear their grandmother’s mink stole for the ceremony. We clean them up, and refresh and restyle as needed.”
While the boutique primarily sells and services furs and outerwear, it has expanded to keep pace with changing times and tastes. Today Kriegsman’s features an array of cashmere sweaters, leather goods, ponchos, ready-to-wear apparel, scarves, handbags and jewelry. And coats, of course, every type of outerwear from raincoats, fur coats, cashmere and fine woolens, puffer coats and ski jackets.
About one-third of what is sold in the store is manufactured on-site. David imports bolts of Loro Piana fabric, considered the finest in the world, to create one-of-a-kind pieces. Master seamstress Stanka Ivanova moved to Greensboro from Bulgaria and learned the special skill of working with fur from David. David does a bit of wholesale work for select outlets and periodically sells pieces he’s created to furriers across the country. But the primary appeal of Kriegsman’s is the fourth-generation retail store where customers can find beautiful, stylish coats and clothes.
The store is a winding labyrinth of treasures: A large main showroom, several smaller open showrooms, and a sewing shop equipped with professional-grade sewing, cutting, and finishing machines and tools where you’ll find garments in various forms of assembly. Further back there is a cleaning room where furs are cleaned, repaired and refreshed.
And, of course, there is the impressive cold storage room, as big as a house itself, constructed of thick, reinforced concrete and meticulously temperature controlled. Fur vaults are specifically designed to protect fur quality by maintaining temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and humidity levels of 50 percent, David explains.
There is a seasonal rhythm to the business. Owners typically bring in their furs to be stored in the spring and retrieve them in the fall. David enjoys the flurry of folks coming in and out and reuniting with customers and the furs that they entrust to his safekeeping. He also finds pleasure in designing new custom pieces, the rare, uninterrupted turn at the sewing machine, and restyling favorite pieces that have been passed down from generation to generation.
– Lucinda Trew, editor
For more information: www.kriegsmanfurs.com
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