DeMay Furs, Ltd.

DeMay Furs is the only full-service furrier left in the city of St. Louis, and it operates out of the back of an antique shop on Cherokee Street – an arrangement that sounds eccentric until you see how naturally the two trades sit together.

The business opened in the Central West End in 1991 and later moved to Antique Row, where it has been since. Its owner brings some thirty-five years in the trade, having set up furriers for other people before running her own.

What DeMay does is the whole of the furrier’s craft rather than a shop counter. Cleaning, cold storage through the summer months, repairs, alterations – and, above all, remodelling. A great many of the furs that come through the door are inherited: a coat cut for a grandmother in 1960 that nobody will wear in that shape now. DeMay redesigns them, from small alterations up to taking a garment apart entirely and building something else out of it, for women and men alike. That is a skill that has all but disappeared, and it is why people drive across the region to this particular back room.

The front of the house sells antiques, and the shop also carries new and pre-owned furs and works as a broker for people buying and selling.

DeMay stands at 2020 Cherokee Street, among the antique dealers of the Row, and the business has a long habit of turning up at local charity events – the sort of quiet neighbourhood involvement that does not advertise itself.