Medical student Lucy Massullo, 23, spends occasional weekends scoping the latest styles for an Ohio-based business she and her four sisters run. Their 2-year-old enterprise-Lena Fiore Inc.-makes glamorous high-fashion coats out of turkey feathers.
Massullo, who attends Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in Downers Grove, serves the family firm as critic and fashion maven.
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Only two sisters-Celeste, 25, and Michele, 28-work full time supervising the coat factory (in southern Italy) and their marketing and distribution operations (at home in Warren, O., and in Cleveland). The others-Cleveland surgeon Marie-Helene, 31; San Francisco lawyer Anne-Christine, 30; and Lucy-check in regularly via conference calls.
The coats-said to be light, warm and crushable enough to pack in a tote bag-are constructed with the turkey feathers that poultry processors ordinarily discard. Dyed 30 different colors and styled from bolero to full-length swing coat, they range in price from $400 to $1,200. ”We like them and they sell,” says a manager at the Michigan Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue, currently the only Chicago source.
”We had the idea a long time ago,” Lucy recalls. ”Then, when the anti- fur movement came along, we thought the time was right to start a business.”
She hastens to add that Lena Fiore Inc. (named for a grandmother) is not sending any kind of message other than a fashion statement. ”This is not a fake fur or a real fur,” says Lucy. ”It`s an alternative to fur.”