Fur refuses to get off the fashion carousel and this autumn/winter is no exception, with heavyweight designers such as Ralph Lauren embracing the faux variety in neck warmers.
At the risk of having red paint thrown on me, I took this mink stole for a test drive on Sunday. It’s incredibly valuable but before you start getting in a sweat over it, I’ll let you in on a little secret, I found it in an op shop, of course.
It was such an adventure wearing it, and contemplating who owned it and what sort of events they wore it to. It’s the sort of red carpet luxury that would have graced the shoulders of old time Hollywood starlets and royalty.
The rule: put luxury next to something rough
I’m not usually one to tone things down, but I was in the mood to offset the sheer luxury with these distressed Zara jeans.
That instinct is the whole reason this outfit works, and it is worth spelling out, because a fur stole is the single easiest thing in a wardrobe to get wrong.
Wear a stole with a cocktail dress and heels and you look like you are going to a 1950s film premiere. There is nothing wrong with that, but you will feel it every second you are out of the house, and you will not wear the thing twice.
Wear the identical stole with ripped jeans and it reads completely differently. Now it looks like a woman who owns a beautiful old thing and cannot be bothered treating it preciously. That is a far more modern look, and infinitely easier to carry off at a Sunday lunch.
The formula: one piece of real luxury, everything else deliberately ordinary. Distressed denim, a plain tee, flat boots. The rougher the surroundings, the better the fur looks.
Fur, faux fur, and being honest about it
This one is a real vintage mink and I am not going to pretend otherwise.
My own line on it is that a fifty-year-old stole already exists. Wearing it does not create demand for a new one, and letting it rot in an op shop bin does no animal any good. That is my reasoning and you are entirely free to disagree, plenty of people I like do.
If you would rather not, faux has genuinely caught up. The heavyweight designers are using it, and the good stuff now has the weight and the movement that cheap fake fur never had. What to look for:
Density at the base. Push the pile apart with your fingers. You want to struggle to see the backing. Sparse fibres over visible mesh is what makes fake fur look fake.
Varied fibre length. Real fur has short dense underfur and longer guard hairs. Good faux copies that; bad faux is all one length, which is why it reads as carpet.
Weight. Pick it up. Convincing faux has some heft to it and hangs in soft folds rather than sticking out.
The styling advice is identical either way, which is really the point.
Where to put the weight
A stole sits high, right at your collarbone, and it is bulky. Two things follow from that.
Keep everything below it lean. Skinny or straight jeans, a narrow trouser, a slim skirt, anything wide underneath and you become one continuous column of volume. This is the same reason a fur vest works over leggings and fights with a full skirt.
And leave your neckline alone. No scarf, no statement necklace, nothing competing at the throat. The stole is the necklace. Put your jewellery on your hands and ears instead, which is exactly where the gold cuff went.
Buying vintage fur from an op shop
Old fur turns up in op shops constantly, usually for very little, because it comes in with deceased estates and nobody quite knows what to do with it.
If you are going to buy one, check these:
The skin, not the fur. Fold a corner back and look at the leather underneath. It should flex. If it cracks or flakes like old paper, the stole is finished. No amount of fur on the outside will save it.
Bald patches at the fold points. Look along the shoulder line and anywhere it has been folded in storage. Wear there is permanent.
The lining and the clasps. Both easily replaced, so do not let either put you off a good skin.
The smell. Mothballs come out with a few weeks of airing. Damp does not.
Store it hanging, in a cotton bag rather than plastic, somewhere it can breathe. Fur that is sealed in plastic dries out and cracks, which is how most of them end up on the rack in the first place.
Three prints in one outfit
Polished off with a snakeskin bag and matching strappy platforms. The gold cuff with studs was a $2 score from the Melbourne designer garage sale.
Snakeskin, distressed denim and fur is technically three textures fighting each other, and the only reason it holds together is that they share a colour family. All browns, greys and neutrals. Texture can be as busy as you like as long as the colour palette stays narrow.
Try that same combination in three different colours and it falls apart immediately.
(This is from 2014. The $2 cuff was a one-off, and I am still smug about it.)
If you have inherited something beautiful and have no idea what to wear it with, that is one of my favourite parts of a styling session. The good pieces are usually already in the house.
I can happily report that Hudson won his 2km cross-country race in his age group yesterday and scored a gold medal for his efforts, and he’ll be competing in the district event soon. Stamina runs in this family!
That’s one lot of nerves tackled for the week. The next big mission is finding a house to live in, and with only two weeks until we have to move, I’m surprised by the peace that fills my heart. And now you’re Looking Good Girls!
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27.