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Let me start off by saying that I have always been impartial to fur coats. This article's intention was
to understand why people wear fur coats, and how it feels to wear a fur coat, not to promote
the purchase of fur coats nor to plot the demise of the fur coat industry.
I had never fully understood fur coat
wearers. In my own experience, wearers have been high society ladies who
lunch, rap moguls, or old French Canadian couples with matching Dr. Zhivago
hats (repping their coureur des bois ancestors, no doubt). What is
the appeal of the fur coat? What do people think of people who wear fur
coats?
This story starts 3 years ago, September 2nd 2001. It was a sunny day,
and I had just began my studies in Montreal and was exploring the city.
Going a bit south of Sherbrooke on St. Laurent, I found a store called Eva B.,
at 2013 St. Laurent. This quirky little vintage clothing store
constantly has crazy sales, a random golden retriever walking around,
changerooms with gravel on the floor, and sales ladies that say that everything
looks cute on you. On this particular day, I was
shopping with my friend Jess and came across the craziest jacket ever on the
"9$ plancher retro" (Translated to the $9 Retro Floor). It was a beige number: a rabbit fur coat
with sweater sleeves and a sweater collar. To put it nicely, it stank.
It had a hole
in the armpit, and there were some really gross yellowy brown stains on the
sleeves and collar. However, nothing a good cleaning wouldn't take
out. I tried to block the wandering thoughts of the origins of the stains,
brought the coat home, and quarantined it in three garbage bags. The key
word here would be P.U. Not having a lot of money, I decided to try cleaning it myself.
I threw it in the bathtub, grabbed the
extendable showerhead, and sprayed it at the strongest setting. It came
out looking like a wet dog and smelled even worse than when it had been
dry. Professional help was definitely in order at this point! The next morning,
I walked all over the
downtown area hunting for a place that would clean the thing. I had estimates ranging from
$30
("One day! Come back tomorrow, 5 o'clock!") to $70 ("We have to
put it in cold storage for two weeks, then we can dry clean it. Hey,
that's what happens with rabbit fur, especially this kind.") and went back to the
$30 place. It's hard to believe that cleaning the coat costs three times
as much as the coat itself.
The coat came back smelling a bit better.
However, then there was the armpit problem, a gaping hole presumably used for
aeration or caused by overstretching. It was quickly patched up by mom,
and the coat was left in a closet for 2 years.
Fast forward to November 2003, lo and behold I find a greyish brown mass in my closet.
It's a rabbit fur coat,
smelling a bit musty. Along with my friend Adrian, here was the day that ensued
in downtown Montreal taking this puppy out for a walk.
(click on map to begin)
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