A Few Furry Facts
This is an assortment of haphazardly compiled information, news and facts, all related to fur in one way or another.
* Fur Care Terms and Fur Manufacturing: Drumming is a process used for cleaning furs by abrasion. It is required that you tumble the fur with sawdust soaked in a special solution. The sawdust absorbs dirt and oil and the abrasive action fluffs the fur. Once a year if you use your fur and it need cleaning you should take it to a professional cleaner.
- Flat Furs are furs that have only one type of hair or fur like Seal and Persian Lamb, for example.
- Shearing is the act -actually, the technique- of trimming fur to reduce weight and bulkiness, while also creating designs and patterns in the fur pile. Shearing is but one way to refurbish your fur cost into a lighter, more fashionable garment.
- Grooving is a method of shearing that produces a stripe design. The width and depth of the stripes or grooves are nothing alike, and a corduroy like texture will be the final result. Grooving is also known as cording.
- Natural lamb fur is called shearling. The leather half is typically sueded and worn on the exterior with the fur side turned inward for warmth. The suede leather may be dyed and advanced tanning methods mean that a Shearling coat or jacket is much lighter-weight than it once was.
- A product known as Knitted Fur is composed of fur yarn. The technique for manufacturing this knittable yarn is to combine thin cut-outs of fur with cotton yarn or silk. Fur yarn can also be crocheted or weaved to produce all sorts of objects. There are a number of knitted products which are actually machine washable.
* Fur Facts – Sheared fur will keep you as warm as unsheared fur. Fur has two main layers. The first is the underfur, which is the layer closest to the skin and has short, dense wool hair. The second one is the guard hair, which is at the top and has longer and straighter hair. Shearing only trims the Guard hair, but the Ground hair, which acts as insulation, is what determines the warmth of a fur. Guard Hair gives the various furs their different characteristics and contains most of a furs pigmentation. Some furs also have a middle layer of hair called Awn hair.
- Generally, long hair furs do not provide any more warmth than short hair furs. Ground hair determines the warmth of a fur.
- Furs from female minks are generally more lightweight, softer, sleeker, glossier and more pliant than those from the male of the species. Female mink is more often used in styles that have draping and soft tailoring. Male mink is used for different, less supple styling. Male mink garments are not automatically cheaper than female mink garments.
- The best fur pieces are made totally without leather. The more leather is used to hold together the strips of fur, the less valuable a fur garment is.
* Recent Market Trends in the Fur Industry – The Fur industry no longer experiences the damages of the 1980s through the early 1990s, due to different factors in the economy and a weakened anti-fur campaign. The fur industry is making a comeback – and quickly.
- Three main factors have contributed to the renewed growth of the industry: an unprecedented increase in demand for fur products by the growing middle class, or nouveaux riches. There is a decline in China and Russia as for the fur industry which use to produce around 15% of the USSR’s yearly revenue as well as the western fashion industry’s rediscovery of all fur garments.
- Russian manufactured fur production today is seven times less than it was in the 1980s. Lacking governmental support, Russia now trails severely in the international manufacturing of fur. Both American and European manufacturers have outpaced the former giant. Russias share in fur production worldwide has dropped from the 35% provided by Soviet Russian breeders in the late 1980s to no more than 3 or 4 %. Russia is responsible for manufacturing 30% of furs world wide. This is partly due to the drop in domestic production, but high domestic demand for quality furs.
- China has also become a large imported of furs, buying wild pelts from North America and manufacturing them into garments to ship back to North America and, in the most part, to Russia. Large-scale production in fur farms in China, which receive state support, adversely impact the Russian fur industry. When the Soviet Union collapsed many of the fur farms in Russia went down with it. The Russian fur manufacturers are not able to compete with the western players as they are not finding avenues to reduce their expenses.
- The ailing Russian fur trade may suffer further as a result of recent events in Georgia. Due to Russia’s intervention in Georgia, the economy suffered billions of dollars being withheld for commerce. The areas entangled in this incident are some of the largest buyers of fur in the world.
- The best marketplaces that sell luxury fur garments nowadays are Dubai, Shanghai and Moscow.