Like shopping for a car, shopping for a fur has its own equivalent of kicking the tires and looking under the hood. Here are some of the
characteristics a consumer should check in addition to the reputation and reliability of the furrier.
– Assembling technique: Look under the lining. You`ll likely to see fur assembled in one of four ways.
1. Let out: The narrow striping of fine mink comes from cutting a short, rectangular whole skin into narrow diagonal bands of fur and reassembling them into long, thin stripes. The stitching makes a chevron pattern with a narrow band of leather in between pelts. Requiring lots of labor, let-out
construction is the most expensive, and is generally considered the best.
2. Skin on skin: Whole skins are joined together vertically with leather bands, then horizontally sewn directly to one another. ”This technique is often used for large sweeps and swinging silhouettes,” says New York manufacturer Michael Forrest. From the leather side, the stitching resembles giant squares. This construction has a lower labor cost but requires top-notch skins.
3. Pieced: Small, leftover swatches of fur from ears, paws and heads are sewn together into a bolt of fabric, from which the coat is made. From the leather side this looks like an old-fashioned irregular patchwork quilt. Piecing is more affordable than whole-skin construction, but usually not as durable.
4. Split skin: This technique is used to make the bigger, wider male mink skins resemble the narrower female pelts. Wider leather strips are used to reassemble the split male skins, which are let out and reassembled in a diagonal pattern, which looks like half of the let-out chevron stitching. Male coats constructed this way usually are less expensive than coats made of equal-quality female skins.
– Male or female: For the last 30 years, female minks have been considered the premier pelts in the U.S., primarily because they are smaller, have silkier fur and are lighter in weight, a particular advantage with coats 50 inches or longer. Thicker, bigger male mink hides cannot be tanned as closely as the female skins, so jackets and coats made of male pelts may feel heavier and more cumbersome.
– Leather quality: Lift the lining to look at the leather. The skin should be supple and creamy in color, not pale white or very dark; white or very dark indicates dyeing or some color alteration process that may shorten the life of the fur. As important as color is feel, says Lester Shapiro, president of National Superior Fur Dressing and Dyeing Co. and a 60-year veteran of the fur business. ”It should be supple to the touch and not dry.” Like a dried leather shoe, a dried-out skin is vulnerable to cracking and tearing, plus shedding fur.
– Silkiness: Touch the fur. It is is the only way to determine the silkiness-and, for many, the ultimate desirability-of a mink. Like the difference between male and female human skin, male minks, whose skins are just as durable as females`, tend to have coarser fur that may be less pleasing to the sensitive touch.
– Fur density: The shortest fur, the underfur, should be thick and evenly distributed, with no underlying skin evident to the naked eye. The longer, outer fur also should be soft and even.
– Color and luster: Like human hair, fur should have a sheen, according to Norton Shapiro, Lester`s son, whose family has dressed fur pelts since 1921. Lackluster fur is a sign of poor quality and possible dyeing. Many furs are treated with color enhancers to even out the color of the pelts or to improve the fur`s appearance, but for natural tones the enhancers should not dull or obliterate the fur`s sheen.
– Finishing: Check the quality of the fabric lining and that 1/2 to 2 inches of fur is facing inside the front of the coat and at the hem, says manufacturer Forrest. ”Skin that stops at the edge of the hem or front closing is likely to wear more quickly,” he says. Among the other details to consider: Buttons are likely to rub at and wear away fur more quickly than hooks hidden in the fur.
– Labels: Marketing labels such as Blackglama stand for a level of quality and color in American mink, but they also bring a higher price. Designer labels indicate special styling. They also may mean more money. Up to $4,000 of a $20,000 designer mink coat can be for the designer label alone, says one furrier. While that seems high, under many licensing agreements a designer receives as much as 3 to 12 percent for the right to use the name.
– Styling. It is only common sense that bigger, longer, full-sweeping coats take more pelts than slim styles. If the quality of fur is equal, the coat made from more skins is more expensive. Rarity of design and extravagant use of top-notch pelts boost the price tag-and make mink ranchers such as Ron Gengel happy. Compared to most American designs, ”the average European coat is bigger, fuller,” says Gengel. ”An average coat made in Italy probably uses 85 skins-average. Some of them use as many as 100.” U.S.-made coats average 50 to 60 female pelts.
– Good judgment: ”The average woman is very intelligent both in sight and touch,” says retailer Bill Tivers, chairman of the Ethics and Grievances Committee of the Associated Fur Industries of Chicagoland. ”And when she has shopped and I lay out 10 coats and ask her to pick the finest coat, 99 percent of the time she will. Top quality cannot be denied. It`s there and the average woman knows it. The only reason all women don`t buy it is because they can`t all afford it.” –
HOW THE COATS COMPARE
$5,000
Description: Natural Lunaraine
Retail price: About $5,000
Construction: Let-out female skins
Warmth: Excellent
Life expectancy: With proper care and service, panelists estimate 8 to 12 years, possibly longer if worn only occasionally.
Fur qualities: Judged by all three panelists as silkiest to the touch;
also ranked well in fur thickness and density.
Rating: Without knowing price, and discounting style, this coat was judged ”best” because of its silky fur, dark color (prized by American consumers) and rel-atively light weight.
Comments: Because of consumer preference, ”this is the color we`re asking for,” said retailer Bill Tivers. ”Comfort is important,” he added,
”so the lightness is important.”
Adding it up: A pri-vate-label coat without a well-known and promoted brand name, Coat X also had perhaps the most conservative shape and felt more fitted through the shoulders. The coat had a tasteful but not lavish tailored collar and bands of fur at the wrist rather than cuffs. Although considered the least durable of the three coats by one panelist, the coat, worn regularly, could have a life expectancy of nearly a decade with proper care.
$10,000
Description: Natural Lunaraine
Retail price: About $10,000
Construction: Let-out male skins
Warmth: Excellent
Life expectancy: 8 to 15 years with proper care and service, possibly more if worn only occasionally.
Fur qualities: Ranked first for fur density and thickness, second in silkiness because of the male mink`s slightly coarser fur. The thicker leather adds to the coat`s durability, but two panelists considered the extra weight of male pelts a major disadvantage.
Rating: Despite the ad-ditional weight, which admittedly is not now in vogue, fur dresser Lester Shapiro said he preferred Coat Y because ”the leather is stronger. It had more body and solid foundation. It had color and good coverage (density of fur).” In contrast, Tivers observed, ”Women today don`t look at keeping a coat for 30 years. They want to wear it now and for today.” Made of male pelts, which allows a coat to be constructed from fewer skins than the equally expensive but smaller female pelts, Coat Y, Tivers said, should be less expensive than a comparable-quality female mink coat.
Adding it up: With a shawl collar and fullness where the sleeve is set into the shoulder, this private-label coat was noticeably heavier to wear than Coat X. The weight difference was less noticeable when compared with Coat Z, which had the fullest shape of the three.
$20,000
Description: Natural wild mink
Retail price: About $20,000
Construction: Let-out female skins
Warmth: Excellent
Life expectancy: 8 to 15 years with proper care and service, possibly more if worn only occasionally.
Fur qualities: Made of wild mink, a different category of fur than the two Lunaraine coats, this coat was ranked lowest in silkiness and density.
Rating: Though popular in other countries and used by many American designers this year to highlight their collections, wild mink generally has been less popular in the U.S. than ranch mink. It therefore is riskier for a U.S. retailer to stock. In some stores, ranch mink coats (in browns so dark they look black) have outsold other colors 4-1 in recent years.
”Coat Z would command the most money in a different location,” said mink grower Gengel. ”The wild ranch might not sell very well here, but in Italy that would go like crazy. The Italians love it. They just love that color, and they will buy it until it goes out of style. They will pay a lot of money for that coat and the skins.”
Adding it up: With the most generous silhouette and feel of the three coats, this coat also sported such details as a notched collar, generous, slightly bell-shaped sleeves and a designer label.
