If you’re looking to keep a little warmer this winter or to add some rustic charm to your home, look no further than Cochrane’s Bella’s Vintage Luxury.
In her Heritage Hills home, Bella Fallis sews as many as five items a day ranging from ponchos, blankets, carpets and pillows – all made out of repurposed and recycled vintage fur jackets.
“People inherit them, it sits in the closet and they don’t know what to do with it. They don’t want to wear it sometimes,” Fallis said.
Fallis described her craft as “memory work” where inherited pieces can live on in a new, functional form.
Now, with Christmas and winter wedding season approaching, Fallis is gearing up to sell her fur clothing and home accessories at the Spruce Meadows Christmas Market from Nov. 17 to Dec. 2.
It will be her third time attending the market and she anticipates it will be another huge success. Last year, her newest product – the poncho – sold out each weekend.
“There’s an entire fur coat in the trim. I take the lining out, cut the sleeves off, now you’ve got a square piece,” Fallis explains.
She then cuts the piece horizontally into smaller rectangles and fashions it to the trim of cashmere or cotton ponchos.
“I waste nothing,” she said. “It takes four of those (rectangles) all the way across the top so there’s nothing left – sixteen feet, double sided.”
The life-long artist said she also looks for other creative ways to repurpose fur.
Right now, Fallis has a vintage straight-back chair for sale, found at a used furniture store. She then embellished it with mink and added a matching mink throw pillow to go with it.
The blankets are made as quilts, using squares of fabric from the same or sometimes various vintage coats.
“It’s great on the back of a couch or end of a bed,” she said.
Other hot selling products include rugs, Christmas stockings and wine bottle covers.
Fallis’ business is now breaking into the wedding market after one of her clients, who ordered capes and cuffs for their wedding, referred her to their wedding planner.
Since then, her work has been featured in Confetti and Rocky Mountain Bride magazines and her business quadrupled in profits, she said.
The luxury vintage fur business is growing on social media as well, Fallis said, with more than 10,000 followers.
Though, like many endeavours, Fallis said getting out and talking to customers is the best mode of business.
“Likes and follows don’t equal sales,” Fallis said.
Once the rush of the winter season is over, Fallis said she will be gearing up again to attend the Cochrane wedding show in March.
The merchandise available at the show will include Irish cloaks trimmed with fur, short capes, matching muffs, stoles, coats, collars and ring bearer pillows. All colours and fur trims will be available, Fallis said.
