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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-02-08, Page 2Leopard Fur Is All The Rage Leopard skin Is infinitely more desirable than eyelet, Because leopard skins ocelot. The couplet is true, literally. The price of •leopard pelts has doubled in the last four years, thanks to some laws of supply and demand that Ricardo and Adam Smith never imagined, In the jungles of East Africa, hunt- ers have made the leopard scarce, In the canyons of New York's East Side and other urban water- ing places, women have decided that leopard is "in," The fewer the skins, the higher the price; the, higher the price, in the para- doxical economics of abundance, the greater the demand. "I do not know how to say this without being impolite," says high fashion furrier Jacques Kap- lan, "and believe me, I am not complaining, because It is good for business—but Americans are very nobility conscious. When the Shah of Iran bought that beautiful leopard (from Maxi- milian, one of the favorite fur- riers of New York's fashion world) for his wife, Farah Diba, the American women saw it, and it became a fad over here , just like when Jackie Kennedy wears a little fur collar, they must all wear a little fur col- lar." (Mrs. Kennedy recently bought a leopard coat from Ben Kahn in New York,) But as David Foster, fur buy- er at Maximilian's put it: "They used to be better than they are, now. Years ago, the best skins cost $250 or $300 each; they're $600 and $700 now for an aver- age -sized pelt. And it takes any- where from five to eight skins to make a coat, depending upon the size of the skin, the style of the coat, and the collar," The best skins are the Somali leopards, which are undersize and therefore have smaller spots than do Tanganyikan or Kenyan leo- pards: they are also silkier and whiter rather than yellowish. A finished coat runs to about $8,000, compared with $4,000 for the oce- lot (grayer, and with smaller spots), $3,000 for cheetah (which has solid black spots on a yellow background, and, as one furrier admitted, "sheds like mad!") and $1,000 for jaguar (which has black spots inside the rosettes). Being one of the patterned furs, leopard is very definitely a sec- ond, or even a third, fur. One's first, said Mme. Anna Maximil- ian Potok, proprietress of Maxi- milian's, should be seal. Then perhaps mink, Then possibly leopard, which is more casual. "Sporty," suggested Foster. "No," corrected Mme. Potok. "Casual! One can wear it quite properly to dinner and to the theatre." In Manhattan's wholesale fur district, Leonard Berman, one of the major dealers in leopard pelts, called through a locked iron grille that there were only "about a thousand Somali pelts taken in a year's time, and then, you've got to match them up, you know." Which is why it took an entire year to find the pelts for a coat for Guinness stout heir- ess Mrs. Loel Guinness. "Last year," Berman said, "there was some imitation leopard that some people brought out. But it didn't wear. After a while, it got to look like garbage. So that's dead this year, but the interest in leo- pard is bigger than ever. Leo- pard, I mean — real leopard — wears very well. It's a strong dur- able fur I think '62 will be a boom year. Coats. Bags. Hats._ Accessories, Everything!" In his uptown mirrored salon, Jacques Kaplan kicked at a So- mali pelt he had thrown on the floor and agreed, after a fashion: "This is a very elegant fur, and has always been limited, both in supply and demand, Let me say' that the woman who used to buy leopard was only of the finest type, one who could afford the best, the most elegant, and chose to play down with the leopard, Now? Let me just say that it is more popularized." - From NEWSWEEK INTERIOR DECORATOR — One who aetnally gets paid for perpetrating in your home some- thing he would never dream of doing in his own, How Well Do You Know SOUTH AMERICA? 1110011I'11Ir SUBMARINE GARDEN—Commissaryman William D. Cox looks over his crop of greens aboard the Polaris missile submarine Ethan Allen. Garden variety vegetables are being grown in hydroponic garden kits in an experiment designed to supply submariners with fresh salads during long undersea cruises. The seeds are planted in chemicals in three- foot planters and intense fluorescent lights are kept on them, TABLE T I, Jove 4r4 e.ws. Imagine how unhappy our an- ' testers were when they landed in the New World and found no apples here! For a couple of thousand years, apples had been grown almost everywhere in Europe, so they were taker., for granted and no- body happened to think to bring seeds or young trees when they sailed out on the uncharted ocean bound for America. But as soon as the next ship sailed back to Europe it carried a call for apple seeds, and soon this popular fruit was growing in Virginia, the Carolinas, and New England. Traders and missionaries took the seeds westward and north- ward and before long apples were growing wherever white settlers could grow them. Et isn't hard to imagine that wherever a good cook settled, .the fragrance of apple pie baking was a sum- mons to the men tocome in to dinner. * * * Standing side by side with popular apple pie, ice cream holds its place asone of our fa- vourite desserts; combine these two, and few would ask ,for any- thing better. The recipe for the apple pie -ice creaio dessert is in this column, but eiirst let me tell you about other desserts that are improved by serving ice cream with them writes Eleanor Richey Johnston in the Christian Science Monitor. Any fruit cobble r, whether served hot or cold, is good topped with vanilla ice cream; also, rice or bread pudding, hot cake, just out of the oven; warm chocolate or butterscotch pudding; slices of iced cake or iced cup cakes; or almost any pie. * * A young woman recently told me that the easiest dessert she makes, and the most popular with her teen-age children, is an ice cream jelly roll. She buys a jelly roll, unrolls it at home (this must be done with care), spreads it all over the jellied side with softened vanilla ice cream, rolls it up again, wraps it in waxed paper and freezes it. At dessert time, she slices it and serves it either plain, with frozen straw- berries, or with thick chocolate sauce. * * a, You have probably made ice cream sundae pies. This requires a baked pie shell or an unbaked shell made with crumbs. When it's time to serve, just spread ice cream in it, or heap it on; then top it with your favourite sun- dae topping—chocolate and nuts, blob s of marshmallow creme, crushed berries, shaved bitter chocolate mixed with coconut, or • frozen orange concentrate. Here is a luscious pie a la mode — I'm sure you'll want to make one soon. APPLE CRUMB PIE IN BUTTERY CRUST Crust, 1 cup sifted flour s/ teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons shortening 2-3 tablespoons cold water Sift flour and Salt into a bowl. Cut in butter and shortening With pastry blender or 2 knives, Sprinkle with water; mix lightly with fork until particles are moistened and hold together. Press into flat patty, Cover and let stand 10 minutes. Roll out on floured board to '/s inch thick- ness; line a 9 -inch pan with pas- try. Flute edges to form high edge, Chill. 1 cupMing' and Topping: sifted flour z cup brown sugar (packed) 3/6 teaspoon salt % cup soft butter 6 cups peeled, sliced conking apples (6.7 medium) z cup sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 quart vanilla ice cream 11'or topping, combine flout, S brown sugar, salt, and butter. Blend until crumbly. Set ,-aside, Combine apples, granulated su- gar, and cinnamon; mix careful- ly to coat apple slices, Pack into chilled crust. Sprinkle crumb topping over apples. Bake at 375° F. until apples are tender— about 50 minutes, Serve warm or cold topped with 'the vauilia ice cream. *' * * Ice cream is equally good ,as a topping for this apple crisp sweetened with. honey. It's easy to make. HONEY APPLE CRISP 2 cups pared, sliced `apples 2 tablespoons sugar 11 teaspoons lemon juice ?a cup liquid honey ?!t cup flour 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1h teaspoon salt 2 tablespoons butter Place apples in a shallow bak- ing dish,' Combine sugar, leinon juice and honey; spread .over apples, Mix flour, brown sugar, and salt; cut or work in the but- ter until mixture is crumbly, Cover apples with the flour mix- ture and bake et.375° F. for 30- 40 minutes or until apples are tender and c r us t is brown, Sprinkle a dash of cinnamon on top, if desired, Top with 'vanilla ice cream. Serves 4. * * Here is an applesauce pudding that may be made with either bread or cake, and it's good eith- er way. APPLESAUCE PUFF 4 slices bread.or•plain cake 2 tablespoons' butter 1% cups applesauce 1 teaspoon cinnamon cup brown sugar (packed) ;