Teresa Angliss

Possum NZ was started by Teresa Angliss and is based in Auckland, New Zealand. In addition to being drawn to the soft and luxurious possum fur, the environmental credentials of this natural product also appealed.

In a workshop above a hairdressing salon, Teresa Angliss is rifling distractedly through dozens of small furry pelts piled up on the floor.It is just before Christmas, and Ms Angliss, an Auckland designer, is working flat out on her biggest commission to date.She is making a bedspread from possum skins.
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"I call it eco-fur," says Teresa Angliss, whose company, Possum New Zealand, carries the slogan "Buy a possum and save a forest!"She says: "I wouldn't work with anything endangered, it would be against my conscience.But this is a national pest, so it's really appealing.I'm exploiting a commercial demand to help contain an environmental disaster."

With its hollow fibres, possum fur is the warmest known to man, according to Ms Angliss."It's very similar to polar bear, which we're not allowed to wear," she explains.She dyes it 19 different colours, including lime and hot pink, and offers a choice of finishes, such as suede, nappa and antiqued.

Sometimes she hand-paints the skins: "It's really funky, upmarket fashion," she says.She gets through hundreds of thousands of possum pelts a year, which she buys from a tannery in the South Island.The possums are bigger and fatter down there, she says, because of the abundant vegetation.

It takes six possums to make a little vest, 15 to make a jacket, 35 to make a coat, depending on length and style.Possum bed throws are "huge" at the moment, says Ms Angliss.
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Teresa Angliss exports most of her products, and they mainly go to the US, where there appears to be an insatiable appetite for possum fur.But, she says, her jackets and scarves are increasingly being bought by Australians on holiday in New Zealand.

"The Australian girls buy them to take home, because they can't buy them there," she says.