Why were women in the 1940s and 1950s so obsessed with mink coats?

Incredibly soft, warm, luxurious, and expensive.

Go nibble a carrot or a nut.

Obviously, yes. If it hadn't been cool, they wouldn't have been obsessed.

Also, have you ever met a mink? They are some of the stupidest and most aggressive animals I've ever seen. Nothing really eats them, they do not make good pets. I think it should be obvious that their purpose on the planet was to provide fur, it is really the only good thing about them.

What becomes a legend...

Status.

Take it back, OP...

And 90s women.

I miss them.

Furs to women were what cars were to men. The richer you were the nicer car a man had and the nicer fur he bought his wife. Both mostly status

Leave it to a Trump to make it look cheap and tacky 🙄

They were also a symbolic of the kind of hard work some women were doing

I sleep with scum, I earn it

OP- People love sitting on dead animals- leather seats in cars 🚗

"Mink coats and no manners."

My boss asked me to see if I can sell several mink coats she had in cold storage after her divorce. Boy have they dropped in price! No one wants them. I mean sure, you can still buy an expensive one brand new but they are way marked down, woman are just not wanting them as much as they used to. Their value has crashed. Same goes for pears for some odd reason.

[quote]Also, have you ever met a mink? They are some of the stupidest and most aggressive animals I've ever seen. Nothing really eats them, they do not make good pets. I think it should be obvious that their purpose on the planet was to provide fur, it is really the only good thing about them.

Hi Milinia, I know a few ladies (and I use that term very loosely) that could challenge that stupidity lack of usefulness gene. Perhaps you should try a mirror?

What those poor animals go through in order for these women to wear mink is unfathomable.

Fuck these cunts.

Happy Mink Farming.

This was very satisfying. Mainly because it's a Kardashian

Fur coats are pretty, scream wealth, shout courage, scorn PETA freaks, flatter a figure, and keep you warm. That's my guess.

The fox stoles with the head still attached always intrigued me. How common was that?

"Trends" darling. "Trends".

I eat meat, so I am definitely not a PETA guy, but that said, it always seemed wired to me to wear fur like that especially with the head on. Leather is different because it's left over after slaughtering the cow for food. Killing a cute little Mink just for fashion seems a bit out of touch with the pure cruelty for status it brings.

Why do the PETA humanitarians never throw flour or paint on leather wearing bikers?

[quote]Their value has crashed. Same goes for pears for some odd reason.

Wearing pears really isn't as fashionable as it once was.

My mother had a mink in the late 60s. It was still thing. then. A status symbol - to show you have a rich man who can afford to buy it for you. Or women who were rich in their own rights could buy their own, obviously. Later on people (like her) didn't know what to do with them, when they became totally UN-PC, so they were advised to use them as lining for raincoats (which she did).

I once found a receipt for a fur coat my mother bought in 1964 (in London). It was about £2,500. A Mini Cooper cost £600 in 1964. They were BIG money. Apparently she inherited some money at that time and that's what she wasted it on, age 24 (always an idiot with money). It was stolen a few years later.

R21, Because leather is not the same as fur you nitwit. Leather is a byproduct, fur is killed only for shallow fashion trends. No one eats mink meat.

It feels good. It's luxurious and warm. I don't really think it's worth spending insane amounts of money on, but I can see the appeal. What I really don't understand is fake fur. It feels awful, it sheds, and it's terrible for the environment.

Because advertising told them they wanted one.

People used natural materials to keep themselves warm then. Fur was useful for that. Now all animals are angels and can never do harm (my pittie was just giving you a love bite!)

I remember, when I was very young, my mother showing me her skunk coat. Yes, skunk fur was used to make coats and jackets. I have no idea what became of it, and I don't recall her actually wearing it.

It certainly doesn't sound glamorous. "I have a new skunk coat. Jealous, bitches?"

The ones with the heads of the animals are repulsive.

Some old aunt of mine wore a fox stole that she would keep in place by having the fox bite its tail.

Just as cool as it is to own leather belts, snakeskin boots and ivory carvings, I guess.

Because it meant daddy loved you.

😂 When I was little my mom had one of those fox things with the heads that bite the tail. I used to sneak it out of her closet and play big game hunter and pretend to shoot it

R14 and R15 = Phoebe Buffay (viz R6)

Popular as they were, only one actress ever wore one to receive a Best Actress award. (Ginger Rogers)

[quote]Same goes for pears for some odd reason.

🍐???

@r35, It would look silly if an actress wore a coat to receive an award. It would be like, "I'm just passing through, but only have a second to take your silly award" Kind of rude

OP — they INSTANTLY communicated glamour and stature and style.

If you had a less than perfect figure or a dress whose expense could only be seen up close, or only a few dresses (fur is expected to be reworn), or didn’t put in your full effort going out fur could save you.

Putting one on immediately set you above anyone without one at the boss’ dinner party.

So they were useful and a better investment than a lot of other clothes and jewels. Surpassed maybe only by the versatility of a strand of pearls.

Ginger didn’t wear it onstage, but she’s the only actress I’ve seen wearing fur in photos on the night.

I just remember as a kid going to Church and all the ladies in their fur coats and hats 🙄

At least they were soft to cuddle up to

Anyone could have a fur coat, but it took Raquel Welch to have a fur bikini!

In the 40s and 50s (and 60s and 70s) people didn't give much thought to the tortured life and painful death millions of sentient being endured just so that a shallow person could wear their carcasses and impress her friends.

I want a mink for winter. Faux fur, of course. And a man size muff for my cinnamon cbd gummies.

I'd love one. My mom had a coat and a jacket. My sister took them and I haven't seen them in a long time.

Mink is very warm and beautiful.

"Do you know how many animals died for that coat?"

"Do you know how many animals I fucked for it?"

.,.,

[quote]"I have a new skunk coat. Jealous, bitches?"

LOL!

For my aunt's 16th birthday my great-grandmother bought her one of those fox stoles with a head that attached to its tail. I can't imagine a teenage girl wearing one today but in 1965 it was very glamorous.

I have a gorgeous Blackglama I inherited from my mother. it’s in great shape. Very soft, luxurious. I had it tailored and updated from Bloomingdale’s in Manhattan some years ago. Got my name monogrammed on one side:, my mothers original monogram is on the other side. very special to me.

I’m a nostalgic type person but my mothers mink coat (from growing up in the 80s) always reminded me of glamour and chic. And yeah, she was only driving to the country club in New Jersey. But it’s important to me.

I have been considering a new full-length fur coat in a beautiful rich brown. My mother has a full-length black mink too but it was weirdly stiff and uncomfortable so we got rid of it. It got that cheap, rigid, stuff feeling— don’t know what happened to it.

My mom made the mistake of taking my teen aged brother shopping with her. He found the fur coats and stated loudly that they were soo soft, like a pussy.

R50 Was he unanimous in that?

This Fabulous Men’s Russian Sable coat isn’t for everybody. Russian Sable, the ultimate of all furs. This fur only for the select few, lets not get it twisted, different league then chinchilla.

$35,000.00

There was no crack, coke or fentanyl. Or back alley rubharb. People had to have something.

Chinchilla is for tall skinny people.

I do kinda wish those old 1920s men's racoon coats would come back in style, faux now of course.

This thread reminds me of entering the work force in the late 1980s. I worked in a super corporate environment (marketing for financial services), in an office that was mostly women.

My boss was in her early 30s and owned several full-length furs. They were badges of achievement for her: as a single professional, she bought them for herself (along with various Chanel and Hermes accessories). The younger women in the office followed suit and soon several of them were saving for their own furs.

So in an odd way, furs were a kind of a feminist statement of independence and accomplishment for urban professionals for a while.

In other words, Boomer woman were just as cold and self involved as Boomer men.

Stranger: “What poor unfortunate creature had to die for you to wear that?”

Hedwig: “My Aunt Trudy!”

[quote] My mother has a full-length black mink too but it was weirdly stiff and uncomfortable so we got rid of it

Perhaps the problem was in the interior lining

They all look too bulky. You couldn't wear them in a bus or a Mini.

Fur hags.

You know they're trash if they're wearing fur.

Their bulk has the benefit of hiding a few extra pounds though.

Old Blackglama adverts used to use somewhat past their prime stars for a reason.

The woke fascination with complaining about offensive customs people grew out of never ceases to fascinate me.

As if history were occurring right now at this second! "Why can't people from the past be as evolved as I am!?"

I agree about fur flattering "ladies of a certain age."

Mother always said that fur coats (vs fur trim or hats) were vulgar on young women under 25. A lady earned her right to wear a fur properly after that age.

Mother was correct about so many, many matters of style.

Love fur and i wear it

Mother can go suck my clit.

R23 My grandmother also had a fur-lined raincoat. It was very glamorous. She wore it on the airplane on the first trip she took me on to New York City. A stranger came up to compliment her and I just remember thinking she was so stylish.

My great-grandmother had a brown mink coat. For some reason, my grandmother never wanted to wear that one, so she had it made into a blanket and draped it luxuriously over a chair. Eventually, it got stiff and odd feeling. My grandmother said it was because she never took the blanket to get cleaned and the other proper maintenance that you need to do to keep them nice— so if anyone has an old fur, perhaps look into getting it cleaned properly every once in a while if they are interested in preserving it.

My grandmother knew someone who was a flight attendant and had sex with one of the Kennedys (Jack or Joe, I can’t remember which) and he apparently sent the flight attendant a fancy fur coat after their affair was over.

The original Neiman Marcus department store in downtown Dallas used to have a huge fur section upstairs. Over the years, it has gotten noticeably smaller and more sparse. Admittedly, I haven’t been back since pre-Covid so I don’t even know if it’s there anymore.

The Barbara Hutton Story miniseries featured a lot of fancy furs in vintage styles.

Luckily it looks like there’s a creep who has a whole YouTube channel on movies featuring furs so we can all enjoy this clip together.

[quote]Mother always said that fur coats (vs fur trim or hats) were vulgar on young women under 25. A lady earned her right to wear a fur properly after that age.

Not to overshare, but beloved Mother would say the same thing about diamond jewelry. Just inappropriate and indecorous on younger women. Real gems should remain the province of more mature ladies of taste.

But that's another thread.

My uncle worked in sales for Cosmo magazine for decades in the 60s and 70s and one very flush year all the wives of the ads salesmen got fur coats which I remember as being called cocktail length, but looking up must be stroller length. She was very proud of that coat and loved wearing.

I took a cruise to Alaska in the summer one time. I expected it to be an older crowd which was not as much as I thought. But of those that were in the group, saw old laddies getting off the ship in full length mink coats and the temperature was 75 degrees! Fuck everyone else was wearing shorts.

FYI don't wait until you are 60 to go to Alaska. It's not all old people or mountain people.. Lots of fun things to do only while you are still young enough to do them, like hiking on a glacier. It's really cool and fun but I would not do it when I am 60.

That story is sooooo MAD MEN, R70!

My mom was truly upset when I told her I didn't want her mink coats (yes, plural) when she died. Told her they're gross.

When she died, I sold them. Didn't even want to do that....but the alternative was throwing them away, which seemed even more disrespectful to the animals.

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat mammals any more. Finding it hard to give up poultry and fish. I think it's terrible how we've treated animals. Granted, I was just as thoughtless about animal welfare in terms of food for most of my life--merrily ate steaks and other meat with little consideration for the animal. Now it just makes me sick.

R72 The rather bizarre part of the story I’ll add now is that they lived on the Main Line in Philly and everyday for work he commuted from Philly to NYC.

If a man wanted to see some bush then he had to show some fur!

This all ties me into the watching Mad Men for the first time thread and how they pulled out that whole backstory late in the series broadcast about how Don worked for a furrier.

[quote]woman are just not wanting them

[quote]In other words, Boomer woman were just as cold

Just the one, dears?

[quote]When she died, I sold them. Didn't even want to do that....but the alternative was throwing them away, which seemed even more disrespectful to the animals.

Yeah, OK.

You wouldn’t have stuffed some money in your pocket and perpetuated someone else wearing these dead animals, but really there was no other way that wasn’t disrespectful to an animal that died 60 years ago.

Mmmkay.

😂

[quote]No one eats mink meat.

Hey, you don’t know that. I would need to see a pic first before committing though.

I loved the use of fur in That Touch of Mink.

Doris looks divine. There were different colored outer coats. The fashion in that film was also divine.

Some dames just know how to wear 'em.

Ask your mother.

You live with her, don’t you?

The crazy thing is, good mink coats are supposed to be kept in temp controlled rooms. So in places like Beverly Hills, woman can keep them at the store in their special refrigerator room or whatever it is until they need to wear them. And it's not cheap. Like paying rent for your coat to live somewhere else.

[quote]So in places like Beverly Hills, woman can keep them at the store

JFC.

Our mother has owned at least two full length black diamond mink coats. She referred to one of them as "this old thing"

Furs weren't just a status symbol -for a long time furs were the warmest winter clothing available! Fur coats were much warmer and much more expensive than the fabric coats of centuries past, that's a big part of the reason the rich wanted the things.

A person who lived in a New England winter or an unheated stone castle would spend half the year desperately wanting to be warm. Furs were as good as it got.

I seem to recall an item about 20 years ago with Streisand taking a small apartment in her NYC building primarily for keeping her furs cold

Yes, but that’s not the same “fur” we’re talking about here.

Parfums Weil, an offshoot of a Paris furrier, started out making perfumes specifically to cover up musty, gamy smells in fur coats. (Zibeline, one of Weil's most famous scents, means "sable" in French.)

My stepbrother is, on the surface, everything DL would hate: a Texas conservative, hunter, Christian (note: he hates Trump and actually voted for Biden). He hates fur coats with a passion because in his mind, animals should only be killed for sustenance and not for fashion or trophy hunting or anything beyond old fashioned deer hunting.

Besides the ridiculous cruelty, there are few places that are cold enough to warrant a fur coat.

[quote] there are few places that are cold enough to warrant a fur coat.

An ignorant, selfish statement

As a youngster in the 1970s, I was obsessed with mink coats from the 1940s. For $20 bucks one could find a mink in decent shape at Hollywood thrift shops. Appropriate for any occasion, I often paired my mink with tight jeans, doc martin boots and a peek-a-boo chain-male top. The lost art of nonchalantly dragging a stole.

The late great Judith Krantz assured her readers (in SCRUPLES and elsewhere) that parts of LA did indeed get chilly enough to warrant a fur, particularly closer to the dessert regions.

Thank god for Judy Krantz. Thank god for FUR!

^ at night, after dark, that is.

Because both Judy and Candy rarely wore fur in the daytime.

[quote] I often paired my mink with tight jeans, doc martin boots and a peek-a-boo chain-male top.

R92 this image made me giggle

When the new Global Ice Age engulfs us we will wish we kept those old furs.

The global warming thing is really going to put a damper on the fur industry.

The global cooling thing is really going to put a damper on all the catastrophizing Henny-Pennies.

"Besides the ridiculous cruelty, there are few places that are cold enough to warrant a fur coat."

Well, there's San Francisco on a summer night!

The only time I ever tried on a mink was when a friend wore a coat she'd inherited from her mother on a frigid summer evening in SF. The thing weighed a fucking ton, and felt coarse (which probably meant it hadn't been stored properly). But it weighed a lot more than a modern cold-weather parka, which might be another reason the things have gone out of style. Not only has the world realized they're made of cruelty and horror, the world has realized that it has more comfortable ways to keep warm.

They were nice to have as you had something to sell when you needed an illegal abortion.

Yeah, those furs with the head and legs, never understood the appeal. My grandma had one. The eyes were marbles. How could anyone see them as anything more than grotesque?

[quote] How could anyone see them as anything more than grotesque?

Your grandchildren with judge you for your fashion choices after you're dead.

[quote]The late great Judith Krantz assured her readers (in SCRUPLES and elsewhere) that parts of LA did indeed get chilly enough to warrant a fur, particularly closer to the dessert regions.

Yes, you definitely needed a fur if you were going to stand too close to a Baked Alaska.

My first boyfriend’s mother kept her fur in cold storage in Boston. Her fur man was Charles Stuart the infamous wife murderer.

[quote]Her fur man was Charles Stuart the infamous wife murderer.

Fur IS murder!

It's a funny thing, but for the last 200 years or so, fur may have been the best way to keep warm, but only women wore it.

Men's top coats were made of fabric, or camel or vicuna hair, the only men who wore fur were unfashionable Russians or fur trappers.

R109. Billy was such a cold cynic.

Take it back...

I’ve always been partial to ermine.

R109 They were in style for college men in the 1920s and late 40s/early 50s.

OP is another virtue signaling fool.

Synthetic fabrics, like fleece, didn't exist. Animal pelts had been used for thousands of years for warmth.

Judy's Blackglama ad was the only one that really made both the star AND the coat look fabulous!

[quote]parts of LA did indeed get chilly enough to warrant a fur, particularly closer to the dessert regions.

I can see that. Especially if it’s ice cream you’re having.

R109, you take that back!

^^^ WE LOVE YOU, JOE!

Barbara Hutton liked to pair her custom fur jacket with resting bitch face.

I love the disdainful way she holds her cigarette.

Wearing a pelt of fur was a status symbol of wealth and elegance.

last one for now...

Funny thing about wearing fur, women look elegant and glamorous, but men always look like pimps

[quote] but men always look like pimps

Except Sergeant Preston

^ He was Canadian and you know how they are 🙄

Polite?

^ Light in the loafers

That's Ermine

^ Looks like Divine

^ Oh, shit! ***moving far, far away from R130*** He'll be giving good head soon enough

^ Huh? 🤔

Are you all vegetarians too. I won't wear fur but animals are raised for food and clothing. leather is also an animal skin. I don't have a problem with people wearing domesticated animals nor do I care if people eat meat. What I object to is killing wild animals as a status symbol. JZ and Beyonce were wearing elephant skin boots. Wearing tiger or any other endangered animal should be a crime. I very much object to people hunting wild or endangered animals like Trump's kids did.

Thank you for stating your boundaries

Animals used for fur coats, etc are typically skinned alive. Isn't that the issue?

Sorry, R130. That was a portrait of Henry VIII who was a tyrant King of England notorious for having the heads hacked off of those who crossed him.

^ Yes, I know who he is, but I think he looks like Divine in that outfit

^ Well, that's fine, dear dear R130. I was just trying to make a funny which unfortunately sailed right over you HEAD! Ah, perhaps I'm lacking in wit.

I like the subtle trim of fur in these two’s outfits.

@r137, " I was just trying to make a funny"

Oh...

Hahahahahaha!

🙄

The Queens on this Board. 🙄

Fur pie never goes out of style!

Fur pies are shaved these days.

My mother and several of the moms in my neighborhood growing up would put on a fur, do big hair and makeup, jewelry and run errands/carpool/whatever. Underneath the coat? Sweatsuits, pajamas. Impressive look until you realize they're slobbed out underneath.

[quote]Underneath the coat? Sweatsuits, pajamas. Impressive look until you realize they're slobbed out underneath.

Ah, but underneath!

Melanie Daniels.

R135, animals are not skinned alive for their fur. Some stupid video out of China showed some people with an animal that allegedly was not quite dead when skinned or something like that. But do you have an opinion on the alien autopsy videos? Were they dead dead?

I wonder if QE2’s leopard coat is in cold storage somewhere.

[quote]I wonder if QE2’s leopard coat is in cold storage somewhere.

I'm starting to wonder whether QE2 is kept in cold storage.

In the 70s on shows like Hollywood Squares and The Price Is Right, a fur from "Dicker and Dicker of Beverly Hills" was regularly featured as one of the game show prizes.

*3* GIRLS *3*

Are you absolutely certain the standing one with the Dick Tracy chin is a girl?

Andy Warhol was worried that Grace Jones wasn't being smart with her money, because she spent so much on fur coats instead of investing.

R152, the one in the fur turban is ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev.

Who was indeed a guuurl.

Here are some homosexual gentlemen enjoying their furs in 1978.

We have not even touched upon other accessories, like the muff.

Women in past decades coveted a big furry muff.

Well, if it isn't Bulgie McBulgerson, r155!

Oh, GURL.

I have a really fabulous sable coat that I adore. I also outfitted my mountain cabin with gorgeous, real fur bed coverings.

Fuck those PETA cunts. I love my fur collection.

Ever have hot sex on soft, luxurious, fur pelts? Get back to me once you have.

You can get fake-fur throws for winter bedding, they're incredible warm and some are machine-washable.

Ya think that R159 is taking his fur to be cleaned every time he has a dirty weekend at his cabin?

The fake fur is an environmental hazard.

Environmentalists don't care

We still wear *our* furs!

Fur is murder...to clean!

This Yenta thought her fur was like butter!

You try and do Tolstoy without furs.

Last year a friend arrived at a small winter house party wearing an aunt's stylish 40s era mink jacket. She looked stunning. People didn't think about the dead animals back then. Dead animals were a way of life, still are for much of the world.

It's grotesque how many animals are destroyed every day for our food, pets, leather and other animal products. We're ravenous gobblers of nature's bounty and its getting worse.

R81, that bitch Bette Davis couldn't hold a candle to me in my mink.

Fur coat and no knickers...

Madonna recently posted pictures of herself in a fur coat.

The Kartrashians have a buttload of fur coats and they wear them out any time the thermometer drops below 60* in LA.

Luis Bunuel uses them to like a weapon. The discreet charm of the bourgeoisie.

Love ChiChi the cow mink!