Ignorance about fur in UK

[mr.beaverlamb]

This listing exemplifies the ignorance of people in the UK towards fur - showing pictures of the coat wrapped in plastic! Jeez...

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/AUTHENTIC-WOMANS-VINTAGE-MINK-FUR-COAT-NEW-L-K-/320679200753

[White Fox]

Yes, if they only knew eh?

 

Sometimes I will reply with a semi sarcastic message to some of these things. For instance if a seller is charging $5,000 for something worth $200. I will send them a message saying "You must have goofed somehow as you have a photo of a $200 coat of this other type of fur posted on the site." I actually often get legitimate replies asking for information on how they should have posted it.

 

W

[ReFur]

It took me years to learn about furs, and I don't pretend to know the aspects of the industry a fur mechanic, or finisher would know. There is so much to know, in the total picture, I still know little. And, even when you do "know", there are many differing opinions on all issues. I also appreciate The Fur Den's role in adding to my knowledge base.

 

I think knowledge of furs, their value, as well as their care has disappeared world-wide over the last 30 years. Who is left to teach the average person? It is a different world now. Furriers use to charge a tremendous amount of money to make custom furs, so they had to convince customers to make them last. (Which they would happily charge another leg-and-arm to do.) The pricing of furs in that era was rape!

 

The North American fur industry's greed does have to be acknowledged in their demise. It most cases these were the Russians and some of the Greek families. They over charged their customers, and they under-paid their staff. There are few in the NY fur district that will argue this point. The mechanics, finishers, etc have all told their children to find other professions. Go to the backrooms in the district and you will find employees way past retirement. They do repairs, last phase finishing, fur remodeling and in a very rare case, a custom fur.

 

There are a few Greek families who may survive. But, they struggle. You do find a few younger Russians in the backrooms. One of the Greeks told me they were working to start internships to revive trained workers. Ultimately, the old furriers drove away their workers and their customers.

 

There are those who will disagree with me, but did China cause their demise? ...or did China picked up the pieces and saved the industry? US and Canadian fur companies went to China to have their pelts tanned because they had the workers, they did a better job, and they did it cheaper. China was trained by the best: the Greeks.

 

China soon realized they had the market on the workers, the fur district's respect on their work, so they wisely started to buy the pelts. Why not? It is a better investment than US treasuries. US fur brands for North America, including the designers buy most of their finished furs in China now, while most consumes view they are buying North American furs. Beaver, muskrat and water-based pelts will always have local supplies. Soon I doubt the fur farm supplies can be cornered. I have not followed the development of Asian based farms, but, I would expect that will soon come as well.

 

Canadian designer Zuki, I believe, is one of the few major players who still manufactures his Beaver pieces in North America, outside of a few small operations with very old owners. If you have a custom made coat, and it isn't mink, you may get a USA or Canadian made fur. Minks are usually just altered from their stock which comes in unhemmed and unlined from China.

 

Now the fur industry sells furs for a lower price point. They are now a part of our disposable society. In the end, if anyone in North America has a job, we will have a wonderful selection. But, one thing I believe, it will not be China's fault. It will be ours. Kind of like blaming the mistress instead of addressing the bad marriage.

 

And, don't think China just makes crap. The best designer furs are made there. They make every quality of fur the market will buy.

 

Lin

[ReFur]

This is an example of a discussion I think transcends the eBay forum. I am going to copy this to the main forum so more members might participate.

 

Lin

[White Fox]

Thanks Linda. Many points there that I had never thought of before!

 

To begin, indeed China makes good products. BUT we in North AMerica want everything cheap. The cheapest always wins. They know that so they send the cheapest crap to us. Know those new screw in fluorescent light bulbs that replace the higher power consuming old fashioned ones? Notice how they do not last very long now? That is because we would not purchase North American ones as they were "too expensive". We would only purchase the cheapest "Chinese ones" that we could get. So, we ask for crap and that is what we get. crap. It only follows it would be the same with furs. They understand that industry to get it to where it is today.

 

The industry is indeed in trouble. There is one thing in their favour though IF they make use of it. i.e. often times when that happens and the old guys get out of the way the few left train new people who take over the industry and make it work. I VERY firmly believe that there is a potential there. However, it needs a whole new outlook from the trappers to the manufacturers to sales to right on down to the consumer. The right people could I think turn it around as quickly as the people could be trained to do it. But it would need a few people with a totally new outlook who are willing to throw almost every preconceived idea out the window and begin again. And it is going to take some really big money to do that.

 

Not long ago I priced a fox coat from a local furrier. $12,000 was the quote! Way too high! Preconceived idea. Soak the buyer for everything they have! And so obviously pretty much every sale those people have the potential for is lost.

 

What is needed will take Big money and just as big commitment to get rid of that "soak the customer" attitude!

 

W

[AKcoyote]

While there definitely are "soak the consumer" type fur shops, there are also some very willing to discount their prices in order to try to stay in business.

 

A big part of the high prices for furs especially where the fur shop has minimal markup, is the continuously rising prices for pelts. There are fewer and fewer fur farms in North America every year as the fur ranchers can no longer make a profit. This may seem illogical, but trappers and ranchers are either struggling or giving up. It seems the auction houses for pelts are to blame, but many of those are closing too.

[ReFur]

WhiteFox and AK, I agree with you both! In fact, of those who are going to remain, they must bring value and trust. But, there will always be those creeps around who prey on others. They are in every profession. They also are the ones who talk the loudest about other furriers being so unethical. Often it is their projection on others that warns you of their true colors.

 

In most cases right now furriers are barely able to break even. That is why I closed my shop. There were too many other things I could do to earn a dollar, and I was not doing it as a hobby. One of biggest frustrations: after selling a piece for little markup, I had a buyer who had no idea of what to expect in a fur or the responsibility they had in maintaining it. They had similar expectations as they would have if it was a wool coat they were buying; if it was made right, why all the maintenance and repairs? I was just not willing to risk my reputation on unrealistic expectations. If I could have found a fur mechanic I could trust, was affordable and close, it might have worked, but I couldn't.

 

There is another aspect of the profession that is really destructive that I touched on above: They tear each other down in the hopes they will get the customer away or sell them unneeded services. It does tremendous damage to the customer and the business. In example: I sold a darling mink jack, in like-new condition, with incredible styling for $600 to a new fur buyer who lived several states away the last part of Winter while she was skiing. She took it home and put it in her closet for the Summer. That Fall she took it to a local furrier to have it cleaned and conditioned as I suggested, actually I also recommended she put it in storage for the summer. The jerk told her the pelts were dried out and convinced her to spend hundreds in a special process only he could do. I was so pissed!! The only reason I found out was another customer came in and told me the story. This happens all the time, and would bet money they believed he was telling the truth and I was one of those creeps we are discussing.

 

This is something all of our members should keep in mind. If you want your trusted furrier to be around, you should do everything you can to fairly pay them and send referrals their way. If not, you may not have this knowledge base and service available to you in the future.

 

Lin

[White Fox]

I wish there was a way to use this site to do exactly that. Make a totally separate site here with a separate URL.

 

With lists of to do's and not to do's of the industry. But, the problem is exactly as Linda says. No one would pay attention to it.

[Guest]

Angie's list?