FURS AND THE WOMAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 61, 23 August 1940, Page 40

FURS AND THE WOMAN

T is interesting to find a New Zealand girl who has qualified as a fur specialist. This, for a woman, is a rare calling, even in America. I climbed up a flight of narrow stairs in search of this specialist. I found her in the workroom, surrounded by a litter of pelts, bolts of silk lining, cards of buttons and braid, and other tools of trade. A most workmanlike room, with the machines whizzing and the scissors snip-snipping as the assistants worked on their jobs. The fur specialist herself was a tall, healthy, attractive, 100% New Zealand girl. She, too, looked workmanlike in a white overall with her pretty brown hair rumpled above it. We talked of furs. It is so easy for women to talk of furs-even if one is a tyro and the other an expert. To both they carry glamour, a sense of beauty and richness-of luxury and costliness. A Fortune in Furs The specialist emerged from a side room carrying in her arms a fortune in furs. She emptied them in my lap. A silky-soft, dark, shining fortune. My hands were lost in them. Long, glossy, silver foxes, mink, skunk, Russian and Arctic foxes, seal and ermine. A pale grey pelt, which I learned was a Brazilian mountain lamb, stood out from the soft, dark pile. Appreciating my interest, the lady specialist brought out a skunk skin, and demonstrated to me how one was cut. I marvelled at her quick, unerring touch as the special fur knife cut a succession cf V shapes down the pelt-even to the trick of lengthening a skin. In one small’ mink skin she made as many as fifty. distinct cuts. It looked so easy, and yet I knew that behind this apparently artless manipulation there were long years of study. "I am often asked," she said, "if the fur never troubles me by getting in my nose and throat, but if it is cut-like this-you merely sever the surface of the pelt and the hair is left untouched." Taught by a Russian Sixteen years ago this girl began her apprenticeship in the fur trade. She was lucky in two things. First, in discovering a calling that suited her talents, second, in her choice of teacher. The furrier who trained her was a Russian from the Court of the Tsar. He knew furs -and he loved them-and to this girl he passed on his understanding and his knowledge.

. "I was really very lucky," she said earnestly. "To-day girls who become apprenticed to the trade usually only specialise in one line, either as cutters, machinists, or improvers-whatever they show an aptitude for. But I was taught every angle of the fur business-even to designing, matching skins, and grading winter and summer pelts. Then, too, unlike apprentices to-day, from the very first I had the advantage of handling the most expensive skins; mink, sable, Alaskan seal. The training not only equipped me with a unique profession, oy 1

but it has brought a personal happiness and independence. I have much to be grateful for." In the early days, she told me, furs were mostly hand-sewn. Even though machines were in use, any special work was always done by hand. She remembers one coat with 300 tiny mole skins sewn together by hand. Alas for dimmed eyesight and pricked fingers! "Nowadays," she said, "machines are so up-to-date that they do the fine work instead of hand-sewing." Designing Fur Coats She, herself, has designed and made up scores of fur coats-a work in which she takes a peculiar pleasure. One model she showed me, in summer ermine, was the acme of smartness with an unusual blouse pouch at the back. Then there is re-modelling of coats and furs; a difficult but fascinating task-for often she is rewarded by seeing a miracle emerge from some discarded Cinderella of a coat. There is also the mounting and modelling of fox stoles. Here again imagination is needed. It is not just a

matter of two eyes, ears, and a nose, Each animal’s face must have an individual expression-the fox differs from the skunk-and the ermine from the fitch, Her Favourite Pelt I was caught up, fascinated by this lore. "Tell me," I said, "what fur do you prefer best yourself?" She sighed. "The most expensive of all-sables. [I love them-but they are only within reach of the few. For the average woman’s pocket I think black seal is the best investment — though summer ermine is the most attractive." "Where do your skins come from?" "All over the place," she said, ‘"Norway, Canada, Russia, South Americaand Arctic foxes come from the Arctic regions, These are rare, as only a limited number are allowed out each year. Trip to America She told me with enthusiasm of her trip to America last year. London, and a trip across on the Queen Mary were to have been her schedule, but the war came, so she could not make the English trip. America fascinated her-particularly the many fox farms she visited. While there she saw several fur parades; the most gorgecus being at Treasure Island at the Golden Gate Fair. The furs worn were luxurious beyond description-and at this particular function all the women guests were presented with a shoulder spray of white gardenias. One breath-taking coat, she described, was fashioned for the opening of the opera season. It was made long and flared out behind in a small train. At a touch, a concealed zipper unhooked the skirt, leaving a short jacket with a circular flare. The flare, in turn, zipped off, leaving a bolero-and the sleeves also possessed zippers that could make them long or short as desired. This wonder coat was in Canadian mink-and it cost just fifteen thousand dollars!