Furry Friend

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Fashion



Fur coats are funny little things in the sense that they can very quickly summon vastly different visions of either 1) Audrey Hepburn/My Fair Lady premiere/Park Avenue princess endless glamour OR…well, 2) something that’s been lopsidedly hanging in you Grandmother’s closet, without having seen the light of day, for twenty plus years.

I think the difference exists entirely within the fit, which is to say that it truly isn’t about cost, color, or even the type of fur per se; rather, the secret to success is contingent upon how a piece falls and serves to enhance the shape of the body.
During a recent fete in the fur salon at Saks, a saleswoman insisted that she had “just the coat” for me, forcing placing my arms into a ridiculously long, all consuming (with the exception of my head, it covered the length of my entire body) chocolate brown number comprised of “the finest Russian sable.” After buttoning it up to my neck (breathing room is so overrated), she stood back to admire her work, hand aptly cupped over dropped jaw, wide eyed, seemingly astonished at how “glamorous” I looked in this seventy thousand dollar abominable snowman suit  treasure.

Though I departed from the store empty handed that day, I eventually found and fell in love with the fur poncho pictured above. It’s not long or especially dazzling; it’s not made of Russian sable, and I didn’t have to refinance my condo to purchase it — but it accentuates my shape, and it’s come to hold a ubiquitous presence in my wardrobe. My ‘furry friend’ as I like to call it (That’s a lot less weird to take in if you understand that I name all of my key wardrobe essentials – you’ll eventually meet Big Puffy/Soft Plush/Johnny Depp and…well, nevermind) can be worn to dress up jeans and a sweater, or even to keep me stylishly warm when I’m wearing, say, a dress or an evening gown in the dead of winter in New York.

And though I love my Grandmother and her style, I like to think that this piece is less in line with the items that she’s kept untouched in her closet for a couple of decades, and just a little bit more reminiscent of the Audrey/My Fair Lady side of things 😉

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13 Responses

  3. Joy

    Love it! It’s so hard to keep fur fresh. Um… you know what I mean. Anyway, you did it beautifully here. I’m a fan of fur in smaller doses like vests and collared jackets, etc. This was just the right amount 🙂

    • brookeAuthor

      ahhh, thank you, Joy! OMG just realized you had a blog and subsequently stalked it of course! Youve always been a fantastic writer and I look forward to see future entries!!! xoxox <3

  4. Karol B

    I hate the fur and really think its passe. I mean, really….I have an inherited all-female mink that’s fortuitously perfectly cut on me but the conspicuous consumption aspect of fur along with the cruelty aspect of fur just keeps it in the back of my hall closet.
    I would be interested in you sharing looks that don’t involve you dripping in thousands of dollars. That would interest me and your figure will look good in any price point. I enjoy your writing, very reminiscent of Vogue in the early 90s.

    • brookeAuthor

      Hi Karol, thank you for your thoughts on the blog and for taking the time to relay them to me in an in depth message. Obviously, I like to know what my readers are really thinking – the good, the bad, and the in between.

      I can definitely understand your thoughts on opting not to wear fur, and I very much respect your opinion. For me, personally, your strong beliefs on the matter have prompted me to do more research and decide whether or not it will be a component of my wardrobe or not on an ongoing basis.

      In terms of the cost of items that I’m wearing, I do like to mix highs and lows, and I don’t see a problem with that. If I’m willing to work hard and invest in something special, or if I receive a gift for the holidays that is perhaps something more than I could ordinarily afford, I don’t see an issue in incorporating that into a post. For this particular look, of course the coat and the purse were expensive pieces, but my boots and shirt were from Topshop and Zara, respectively. The jeans I’ve had for about ten years – you may notice they’re now faded because I wore them nearly everyday in college. Like I said, I do throughly enjoy fashion — virtually every aspect of it — and I’ll always be interested in pairing more expensive things together with less pricey items and seeing what the outcome is. I’m not someone who’s interested in wearing head to toe designer, though, nor am I able to.

      Thank you for your kind words about my figure being conducive to different price points and my writing. I would like for my blog to serve as a forum of inspiration to all of my readers, and a huge aspect of that is making it accessible to readers, so incorporating more affordable items, and being able to pull off a lot of price points — as you said — is certainly an important way to accomplish this. Perhaps most importantly, I do love to write. That is my foremost passion in life, and I very much appreciate your thoughtfulness in reading my posts.

      I hope that you’ll continue to keep reading, and I thank you again for your honesty. Like I said, I think it’s very important to get feedback from readers and I’m glad that we can have a discussion about what you like and don’t like about the posts.

      Best,

      Brooke

  5. Jenny

    As opposed to the comment above, I have to say I disagree. Most fashion/style bloggers indulge and show off their expensive clothing, since it is an innate part of many fashion blogs. But then again, as you can see here and among many other blogs, mixing high-low brands is quite popular.

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