Refashioning a Vintage Fur Coat Part 1: Stole

I have a secret which shames me a bit: I adore fur coats! They are so glossy, and silky, and warm! Does it make it ok if they are vintage? I hope so, because I have one. I got it in Italy - where the women are known for their beautiful furs. From a junk shop. Vintage shop is not the right word for this place, it is more of a salvage yard with used furniture piled up outside a shed-like building. They have an amazing selection of vintage home appliances such as pre-electric irons and rotary telephones. If you wanted to dress a film set, this would be the place to shop.

Before, front

Before, back

But back to the coat. I paid far too much for it, 120 euros, and it is actually worthless. More on that later. 

It's not something I would wear at the moment: it is too big for me, the full length is very dated, the double breasted style adds even more volume and the collar is the biggest problem of all. It is far too large, and the pile has been cut which takes off the shine, colour and silkiness of the longer pile pieces. Honestly, wearing the coat makes me look like I am wearing a bear costume. 

Watch out for that bear!

I was really torn about what to do with it. It was stuffed in the top of my cupboard for quite a few years because I had no idea, and I was really scared of getting it wrong.

The fur is beautifully glossy and silky and it is heavy and warm. I believe the animal is not a bear but fox, possibly male. The pelts in the back and sleeves seem very large and the joins and the stripes look fabulous. They are arranged in large strips with a black stripe running through the centre. The furrier kept a lot of volume in the hem and placed the darker colours here. I don't know how they joined the pelts to get this effect, but it is a lovely touch. The underside of the collar is also quite spectacular. I'm not sure if it is shorn, or a different animal altogether, but these are relatively coarse hairs, moving in stripe patterns. They seem to have joined lots of small pelts together. Possibly the legs? (I am simultaneously enchanted and revolted by this coat.) The short pile on the underside means the collar sits flat when worn. I wouldn't have even thought that it was even necessary to have the under-collar made of fur at all. This must have been a pretty luxurious coat in its day.

Under Collar

In its day. Unfortunately, that day has now passed. The skin has dried out, and the fur sounds rustly and feels papery when you move it about. I now know that if it sounds like that, you shouldn't buy it. I'm not exactly sure if it was that way when I bought it, or if it has deteriorated since I owned it - probably both - but it is in a bad state of decay now. Just from trying it on at home and wearing it about the house for fun (ok, warmth) caused a tear to open up in the underside of the sleeve. These are ugly tears in the middle of the skin. This is because the skin has rotted away under the fur. It also means that the fur is starting to shed. Most people don't bother to send their vintage furs away for storage in the winter, it's too expensive and too much of a hassle. So that means that most vintage furs are in a sorry state indeed. It is probably not worth buying furs older than 10 years. Even top quality furs are going to deteriorate with time. As a positive: I see this as part of the sustainable nature of real fur - it will rot and decompose, and not become more plastic in landfill, as faux fur will. We can look after it and enjoy it, but it is not going to be here forever.

Hole in the hide

The terrible state of the skin made me feel less scared about cutting into it. I knew that I was not set to ruin something, because it was ruined anyway. (Although it did leave me with a niggling question in the back of my mind: how does one dispose of a decomposing fur coat? Throw it in the household rubbish? Compost? Shall I walk past a street bin and dramatically throw it off my shoulders and stuff it in the bin? I would do that last one outside the Opera House!)

Before

But back to the refashion. There are so many different things I could get out of this coat, if only the skins are in good enough condition. Best case: a throw from the skirt, two cushion covers from the sleeves, a cape from the shoulders, a stole from the collar and a hat trim from the under collar. I started by unpicking the top of the collar from the rest of the coat.

After

I was terribly worried about being icked out by the sight of the skins under the lining. I didn't want to see all the little animals that went into this. I like fur and I like meat, but I don't like the animal products that I consume to look like the animals that went into them. 

Lucky me: the coat is more well-made than I even dreamed, the underside is lined with horsehair canvas and another layer of lining. This is all edged with bias binding to hold the shape of the collar. So unpicking the collar (which took three evenings) left me with a lined, bound piece in the shape of a stole. Win! It was a messy job though. The fur is a bit smelly in that old clothes / charity shop way, the pile shed at the edges and there is fine sawdust inside. Something to do with the cleaning process. 

I found this article on how to refashion a fur incredibly helpful.

Lining

There were two slashes, creating lapel edges, I sewed these up by hand and they add nice volume to the stole. I didn't use a special needle, or thread, just one of those hotel sewing kit needles! I tried to keep the stitches going through the bias binding and the hide for maximum strength. The stitches went in easily. Perhaps a better quality hide might cause more problems. 

I have been wearing the stole without adding a new lining. The underside looks pretty ropey, but in all honesty, I am not willing to put in the effort to line it when it is probably going to perish quite soon anyway. I have found a way to wear it as a collar/scarf with my winter jacket and I just stuff the long ends inside my lapel. It is lovely and warm and feels soft too.

Vintage Fur Refashion

Part 1: original coat and turning the collar into a stole

Part 2: under collar into a new collar