Fur

Kid gloves were commonly worn from the from the nineteenth to the early
twentieth century and are still made today. Goatskin leather is softer
than cow skin leather and tougher than sheepskin leather. It is used for
shoes and boots, jackets and other clothing that require a soft durable
leather.

Cashmere goats produce a cashmere fiber that is extremely fine and soft.
Cashmere is used for quality sweaters and men’s sports jackets, but can
also be found and appreciated in any garment that touches the skin with
its silky light touch, from scarves to cashmere socks and underwear.

Mohair comes from the angora goat and is one of the oldest textile
fibers in use. It is 2 ½ times as strong as wool and has a high luster
and sheen. Mohair is often used in blends with other fibers and is found
in scarves, winter hats, suits, sweaters, coats, and socks.

Written by The Vintage Fashion Guild

Guanacos are found in South America. They are related to camels but are smaller in size with a longer layer of guardhair and a shorter, wooly, thick layer of soft downy underfur. Their fur color is mostly a variation of brown or reddish brown with white. These colors help guanacos blend into the grassy and desert regions they inhabit and roam.

Written by Furwise.com

The Jaguar is found in Central and South America (as opposed to the leopard, which comes from Africa and Asia) although they have also been seen in Southwestern United States.

One simple way to distinguish the fur of the jaguar is to look at the spot pattern. Although we say leopards and jaguars have spots, some of the markings aren’t really spots at all. The markings form rings, which may or may not be solid all the way around. These are called ‘rosettes’. Jaguars have very large rosettes on their sides and backs. Some of the rosettes have spots inside.

Leopard rosettes are much smaller and do not have any spots inside. While the rosettes of leopards form a similar pattern all over their bodies and the rosettes on a leopard’s shoulders are much the same as the rosettes on it’s belly, back and legs, jaguars do not have an all-over pattern.

There are three types of markings to note on a jaguar. On the neck and shoulders there are small, scattered spots. On the belly and back there are big rosettes. On the legs there are quite large, solid black spots.

The jaguar has become an endangered species due to the hunting of its fur. Farmers have killed jaguars because of cattle losses. Jaguars take cover in grasslands but are dying from smog and cutting. It is unlawful to import or export Jaguar fur.

The fur of the kangaroo comes from two species that are harvested. The Eastern Grey and the Western Red. The Eastern Grey measures up to 6 feet. Fur is long and gray with brown flecks. The Western Red is the largest of the species measuring up to 8 feet.

Kangaroos live in arid or semi-arid climates so their coats are usually short. The female red is actually a blue-gray color. The skins are usually chrome tanned, which helps with prolonging the durability of the pelt that is also sometimes dyed.

The female kangaroo can have up to three young, called Joeys, every two years.

Written by Pauline Cameron & Katie Kemsley

The fur from Sheep and Lamb is incredibly warm, hardwearing, practical and acceptable to wear in today’s anti-fur society, as it is a by-product of an animal that is also a food source. There are multiple different types of Lamb. Some of them look quite similar while others look quite different.
There has been much confusion over the identification of the many varieties of sheep and lamb fur treatments and breeds. Generally speaking, Persian Lamb, Broadtail Lamb, and Persian-Broadtail Lamb are of the same species of Karakul Lamb, which are native to Central Asia.
Processed-Broadtail Lamb, Mouton and Shearling are specific treatments of Lamb fur and are not related to any specific breed of Lamb.

Karakul Lamb is native to Central Asia and is named after a village called Karakul. They are the oldest breed of domesticated lamb. Also known as Fur Sheep they have beautiful patterned silky pelts with a strong fiber that was felted into fabric or woven into carpeting. Karakul lamb was introduced to the US in the 1910’s and 1920’s for pelt production. US breeders introduced other breeds into the Karakul bloodline, which resulted in inferior pelt quality. Eventually the industry and flocks were dispersed.
The Karakul is distinguished by the color of its fleece, which is due to a dominant black gene. Most Lambs are born coal black with lustrous wavy curls, with the face, ears, and legs usually showing smooth, sleek hair. The color generally begins to turn brownish or bluish gray, getting grayer with age. In its native region the colors are called Arabi (black), Guligas (pink-roan), Kambar (brown), Shirazi (grey) and Sur (agouti). Occasionally individuals are white or pied.
Many adults have a double coat, a fine down undercoat, covered by a coat of guard hair. The best have a fleece as glossy as their lamb coat. There is great variability in the fleece type of both coats, from ‘horse tail’ coarse to silky soft.

Broadtail Lamb is the most exclusive and expensive type of Lamb. It’s hide is soft and thin and it’s fur is short, silky, semi flat, and wavy in texture with a moiré patterned appearance. Natural Broadtail is gray or brown.
American processed Broadtail has a thicker hide and longer fur. The fur is sheared near the skin to give it that distinctive moiré pattern. It is more durable than natural Broadtail, the shearing is close enough to the skin so curl is not present, and is a bit less expensive.
Broadtail is often dyed black as well as other fashionable colors, is used to make outerwear and high end clothing.

Persian, Astrakhan, and Karakul/Caracul Lamb are from parts of Russia, Persia(Iran), and surrounding countries. The wool consists of tightly coiled curls. Natural colors are brown, gray, and black. The black is often dyed to darken the naturally white or creamy colored leather underneath so it does not show between the curls.

Mouton: Sheared lamb or sheepskin is called Mouton. It is a soft, thick, sheared fur that is straightened and chemically treated to make it water repellent. It’s natural color is usually off-white but it is often dyed various shades of brown and black. In the past it was often dyed and treated to resemble Seal fur. It also looks very similar to Sheared Beaver.

The leopard is most easily recognized by its rosette patterned coat and extremely long, dark tail. This large cat is sometimes confused in appearance with the South American jaguar but the leopard is less stocky and (unlike the jaguar) its rosette markings are generally smaller and have no internal spots. The base coloration of the coat also varies greatly depending upon location, ranging from golden/yellow in open grasslands, to yellow/cream in desert areas to deep gold in mountain and forest regions.

All black or melanistic Leopards, sometimes commonly called ‘Black Panthers’, are born in the same litter as normally marked cats. They also carry the rosette markings although these are masked by the darkness of the fur. It has been observed that the melantistic leopard is most generally found in the dense, wet forested areas of India and south east Asia, where the coloration advantages the cat in its hunting.

Although no other wild cat has such a wide spread range and diverse prey base as the leopard, it is still under threat in many regions. Once common in all parts of Africa it is now absent from most parts of northern Africa, apart from a few widespread areas of the Atlas Mountains. It is scarce in the extreme west. Subspecies of the leopard were once common in the Middle East and are now all but extinct, as is the Persian Leopard. In Southeast Asia and India its numbers have dwindled. This is mainly due to hunting for its prized fur but also through erosion of natural habit due to the spread of the human population. The Korean Leopard (or Amur Leopard) is extremely rare in the wild, suffering extensively from habitat loss.

Written by Pauline Cameron & Katie Kemsley

Lipi Cat is a name used in the fur industry for Chinese Leopard Cat. It is one of the a subspecies of the small Asian Leopard Cat which is found across Southern and Eastern Asia. There are many subspecies of the small Asian Leopard cat but Chinese Leopard Cat is the only one internationally traded. Most are listed as endangered species but Chinese Leopard Cats are allowed to be traded with regulation, proper permitting, and are listed on Appendix II.

Chinese Leopard Cats are sometimes misidentified as house cats but they are actually much longer throughout the body and have they have rosettes, random spots, and golden fur similar to a leopard. They also have bands running from their forehead to the back of their necks, with black or brown spotted white belly fur.
Chinese Leopard Cats are usually found in China’s Yunnan Province. They have bolder markings than their subspecies, they live in deserts and forests, and they use their pattern to camoflauge themselves in the habitat they are in.

Written by FurWise.com

The outer coarse guard hair of llamas is used primarily for rugs, wall
hangings and ropes. The finer undercoat is used for garments. Found
mainly in South America, the color ranges from white to brown and black.

A hollow fiber, llama is very warm for its weight. It has a natural
capacity to regulate moisture (wicking). Llama garments shed moisture
and are warm when wet.

Alpacas are members of the llama family. Alpaca is used for men’s and
women’s suits, coats and sportswear, linings and sweaters. Some fine
alpaca is used for women’s dresses.

Written by The Vintage Fashion Guild

The lynx is a medium size cat with a fluffy snow-white coat with black spots that is still rare and precious. Lynx are indigenous to North America and Russia, the more expensive coming from Russia. The ‘belly’ of the pelt is usually whiter and has longer fur and is more expensive, compared to the “back,” which is usually flatter and has more brown shadings.

Written by Pauline Cameron & Katie Kemsley

Marabou is term often misused, as genuine marabou is no longer available for fashion use. True marabou feathers were from a member of the stork family found in the Arabian Peninsula and were fairly costly.

Marabou feathers are characterized by their very fine, dense, downy and very fluffy short nap (length), and are velvety soft. Marabou was sometimes used as a fur substitute in the 19th century, as well as dress trimmings and muffs, and even powder puffs. Pre 20th century items can still be found with genuine marabou feathers. Today what we call marabou is actually the soft downy feathers of a young turkey, and are very inexpensive and can be dyed in any color. Used today primarily for stage costumes, long thin boas, dress trimmings, lingerie trimmings, fancy slippers, handbags, and hats. In appearance they are very close to the “real thing”.

Written by Rue de la Paix/www.ruedelapaixhats.com.

The margay is often confused with its near relatives, the Ocelot and the Oncilla. Their coats are very similar. Found in South America, the margay has been called the “tree ocelot” or “long tailed cat”.

The fur is soft and plush, brownish yellow to tan with black blotches, spots and stripes in longitudinal rows. Weight is 9-20 pounds and it is 34-52 inches in length. The center of each spot or rosette is slightly paler but darker than the ground color of the fur. The belly, chest, throat, chin and insides of the legs are snowy white.

On the margay, as on the ocelot, the fur turns forward in the nape region and the hairs on the neck are directed towards the crown. There are two dark cheek stripes on each side of the face. Their tails, as in many arboreal mammals, are very long, as much as 70% of the body length and marked with broad rings and a black tip. The backs of the large, rounded ears are black with a white central spot.

A mainly tree dwelling animal, margays are restricted to forest habitat. They have been found in humid tropical evergreen and deciduous forests, mountain and cloud forests, wet, swampy savannas and occasionally coffee and cocoa plantations with large trees.

Mexico is the northernmost limit of their distribution, ranging down through Central and South America to northern Argentina. A field study carried out in Belize found daytime resting areas were in trees seven to ten meters above the ground and the home range of the male was about 11 square km. A Brazilian radio telemetry 18-month study found home ranges to be 16 square km. Much of their range is shared with the Ocelot, which take larger and more ground dwelling prey species.

Usually marmots are uniformly colored but mountain forms can have brightly colored belly hair. Stripes or spots are found only on the woodchuck, yellow-bellied and, to a lesser extent, alpine marmots, which have ‘sparkles’ on the back and sides of the body. Fur on the head and back is often darker than on the belly. Light coloration is more or less characteristic, not only of the belly and sides of the body but also of the cheeks, neck and sometimes the shoulders, as in Menzbier’s Marmot.

Density, elasticity, length, and coloration of the hair coat change seasonally. The thickest, softest, and most glistening fur develops in late summer before hibernation when the dark tips of hairs make the fur even darker. Early in spring, after hibernation, the fur quality worsens as it becomes bleached and matted and hairs become brittle and lusterless.

The tail is fairly long and muscular with a thick cover of long rough hairs. The tail’s end has dark coloration. In contrast to squirrels or chipmunks the underside is not parted in two.

The hair is usually lightly colored in the middle with dark distal ends and the cover is fairly thick and longer, as well as darker at the base, on the back and sides (25 – 55 mm) and shorter and whitish colored on the belly (half as long).

The fur quality and length and density of hair cover vary considerably among species and depend on landscape and environmental conditions. Most thick and fluffy fur occurs in black-capped, gray, and Altai marmots that inhabit regions with severe climate. Alpine, Red and Himalayan marmots are distinguished from other pale arctic species by their rough fur. But for the Alaskan marmot, rough fur occurs in North American marmots, which are not hunted for their pelts.

Found primarily in the Northwest Territories of Canada, the marten includes 5 subspecies including the marten, Newfoundland pine marten, eastern marten, western marten, and the Rocky Mountain marten. The Northwest Territories, the winter coat starts growing in mid-October. The fur is basically brown but varies from almost black to a yellowish-brown color that is darker on the legs and tail and lighter on the head and under parts. The throat has an orange or yellow patch. The winter fur is warm because of the combination of stiff glossy guard hairs that trap pockets of insulating air and fine dense under fur. The fur thins by March and by mid-June the animals have their summer coloring comprising gray-brown with a reddish-yellow throat patch.

The female marten, which measures about 20 inches long and stands 6 inches tall, is about three-fourths the size of the male. Their fur is soft and thick, varying in color from pale buff or yellow to reddish or dark brown. Their throats are pale buff with black tails and legs. Two vertical black lines run above the inner corners of their eyes.

The furriers’ name for pine marten is Baum marten. Pine martens are small, soft gold in color and look somewhere between golden sable and gold-dyed mink. They are often confused with fishers and stone martens. Fishers live in similar habitat, have similar tracks but are darker in color than pine martens. Stone martens are not native to the same area, but are about the size of the male pine marten and are creamy beige in color, boasting a dark brown stripe.

In the fur industry marten have been called Canadian or American sable in an effort to link them to the valuable Russian Sable. The species was endangered due to over trapping at the turn of the 20th century.

Written by Pauline Cameron & Katie Kemsley

Mink from the wilderness is referred to as wild mink. Farmed mink is referred to as ranched mink. Mink comes in a variety of colors, sometimes natural, and sometimes dyed.

The mink is a semi aquatic Weasel indigenous to North America, Siberia, China and Japan.

Mink was not trapped in any quantity until the 19th century and did not become fashionable until the mid 20th century.

Unless sheared, mink is a dense and lightweight fur with lustrous guard hairs and lush, soft under fur. Dark mink is the most recognizable even though, as early as 1930, breeders developed types such as clear light blue ‘Sapphire’, ‘Silverblue’ and white.

Female mink pelts are generally smaller, softer, silkier, lighter in weight, and have a higher luster than male mink pelts, however a female mink pelt is not necessarily better than a male mink pelt.

Made from the pelt of the Abyssinian, or Central African Colobus Monkey, the fur is very long (reaching lengths of 5 inches or so), sleek, shiny. It looks and feels eerily like human hair. Monkey fur was very popular from the mid nineteenth century through the 1940’s during which time the Colobus Monkey population dropped to alarmingly low numbers.

Commonly you will see Colobus Monkey fur used in various trimmings on late 1920’s capes and coats and later, in full and short monkey coats and short capes from the 1930’s to the 1940’s.

This little depression era fashion quote marks the climate of the times for this fur:

“When the big 1927 fad for monkey fur died down, the furriers put all their monkey surplus in warehouses, a dead loss. Now it is all out again. Cables have been rushed to Africa for more of the long, silky sophisticated hairs, and the depression times are boom times on the Gold Coast’. ‘Little Acorns.” Harpers Bazaar, April 1933.

There are five species of black and white Colobus monkey, ranging from all black (the most common fur you will find) to a skunk-like black and white pattern. Red Colobus monkeys are found across Africa from Zanzibar to Senegal. Their color is highly variable, ranging from brilliant white and red in East African to slate gray and orange in Western African monkeys. The little-known Olive Colobus is found only in the forests of coastal West Africa. It is the most drably colored of the African Colobus monkeys being a fairly uniform gray-brown.

Mostly found in North America, muskrats have long been prized for their fur and are the most frequently caught fur-bearing animal in the United States. Muskrat fur is made up of two kinds of hair; the long, coarse and glossy outer guard hairs protect the softer, dense insulating hairs from damage. Colors are mostly browns with lighter shades of grays or blonds on chest and stomach areas. The under fur traps air and prevents the muskrat’s skin becoming wet while it is in the water.

Before truth in advertising laws was applied to the fur trade, muskrat was often called ‘River Mink’, and sheared, dyed muskrat was often called ‘Hudson Seal’.

Written by Pauline Cameron & Katie Kemsley

Nutria are small rodents. Known to multiply quickly they start to breed at 6 months and have two litters per year.

They are semi aquatic and have glistening fur. Slightly smaller than a Beaver they are sometimes mistaken for them. Native to the coastal and lake marshes of Argentina, the population levels fluctuate with periods of drought and floods.

In Louisiana nutria inhabit the freshwater and partial salty marshes along the Mississippi River delta. Trapping nutria in Louisiana is vital to protecting their wetlands. In the early 1960’s Louisiana tried to solve the problem of overpopulation by encouraging trapping. Trappers were motivated by the price of the fur and more than a million pelts were sold for the German fur trade. In the early 1980’s the bottom fell out of the price of the pelts.

Written by Pauline Cameron & Katie Kemsley

The ocelot is probably the best known of the South American cats because of its pelt being the mainstay of the fur trade. The ocelot is much larger than its cousins the Margay and the Oncilla, although they bear a striking resemblance. Its coat tends to be more blotched than spotted. Its chain-like blotches and spots are bordered with black but have a lighter colored center. These markings run the entire length of the cat. The ground color varies from whitish or tawny yellow through reddish gray to gray.

The ocelot was frequently kept as a pet. However, ocelots are high strung and unpredictable, so humans have de-fanged, de-clawed, de-scented and altered these cats in order to make them conform to the ‘pet’ industry. Like all exotic cats, these creatures, male or female, altered or not, spray a foul smelling urine on everything they wish to mark as theirs.

As late as the 1980’s, ocelot fur coats sold for $40,000.00 and the live animal as a pet sold for $800.00. At one time more than 200,000 ocelots per year were killed for their coats. Today, with laws prohibiting hunting for the fur trade, there are no Ocelot coats for sale and the ‘pet’ ocelot is a thing of the past.

Written by Pauline Cameron & Katie Kemsley

The opossum is from North America and Central America, and is is often confused with it’s cousin the possum which is from Australia and also now inhabits New Zealand. American opossum is considered a pest by many as it lives in grassy lands, is often found hunting in urban waste bins, commonly crosses the road at the wrong time, and winds up being roadkill after being hit by vehicles. The fur is of two layers, a longer layer of silver gray guardhair and a shorter layer of underfur that is thick and white with black tips. The fur is sometimes tinted, dyed, sheared, or plucked, and it feels soft and thick. The fur can last many years if properly taken care of. Commercial use of opossum helps prevent habitat loss.

Water Opossum: Found from southern Mexico and Belize to northeastern Argentina. The fur is relatively short, fine, and dense. The back is marbled gray and black, the rounded black areas coming together along the midline. The muzzle, a band through the eye to below the ear and the crown are blackish; a prominent grayish white, crescent-like band passes from the front of one ear to the other, just above the eyes. The chin, chest, and belly are white. The long, rat-like tail is well furred only at its base and is black near the body and yellowish or whitish towards the end. The facial bristles are stout, long and placed in tufts.

Written by Furwise.com

Ostrich are native to the African continent but are farmed worldwide. Ostrich feathers have been used in fashion for thousands of years and were at one time worth more than their weight in gold.

The best plumes are from the African male bird and were used for centuries in men’s hats, then later after the late 18th century the millinery usage was exclusively for women’s hats. Also used for capes, hand fans, boas, muffs, and trimmings on a variety of clothing and accessories. At the peak of their popularity during the “feather fashion craze” of the early 20th century, plumes were found in dozens of sizes, made into fantastic shapes and amazing types. Sadly, most feathers today are plain and thin compared to the preferable antique variety.

Ostrich leather is highly prized for its strength and beauty and is used today for shoes, purses, wallets, luggage and other small accessories. The oil from the ostrich is also highly prized for cosmetic use.

Ostrich eggs are used for beautiful carvings and jewelry.

Contrary to popular opinion, an ostrich’s feathers are not plucked, they are cut from the body with sharp scissor like tools.