Mink Guide

When a woman purchases her first fur coat, it's almost always a mink. She knows it will make her feel fabulous for more years than it will take to outgrow two or three automobiles, homes and perhaps even her spouse.
For years, women were trained to buy a standard mink coat at a standard price. That changed about 20 years ago, when both more expensive designer labels entered the market and coats made from less expensive Russian mink pelts were sold internationally. The concept of "the right price" or even of value became confusing.
Today there is some kind of mink to fit (nearly) every budget, whether you're buying that investment coat, just a little fashion jacket, or you're having your first fling with mink and buying a wisp of a knitted scarf. The plethora of possibilities is positively dizzying, so how are you to know when you're buying the right quality for the right garment and getting value for your money?
And still, confusion about price, quality, labels and value remains. Why do similar-looking mink coats cost $7,000, $17,000 and even $27,000?
First decide how much you want to spend. As a general rule, buy the most coat you can afford. That means, if you can't afford a good quality mink, opt for a great quality sheared beaver. If you can afford an excellent mink, buy it without wondering if youre just paying more for the same coat that sells for less across town. There really is a difference in quality.
But to be sure, expect to spend some time doing research -- real foot research, entering at least five different fur salons and checking out the quality and prices. If you can afford a very nice, $10,000 mink, go to several stores and gepare what you can get for your money.
Most furs are made in China today. North American made furs cost more, and European furs are even more pricey.
--Ask to see the inside of the coat or jacket, if you're buying one with a lining. Most mink garments are finished with an open hem at the bottom of the lining for exactly this purchase. Typically a sales associate might spread the mink out on the floor (don't worry, this is not disrespectful nor will it harm the garment) with the lining side up, then lift the lining. Here you will view the opposite side of the actual mink fur, which is the leather side to which each hair of the fur is attached by Mother Nature. Check out the construction of the coat. If it was made with the let-out process (each mink pelt is sliced into tiny stripes, which are then sewn together in an elongated form to create the traditional striped look of mink coats), you can see how clean the stitches are, if there is much fur caught in the stitches. Generally the cleaner the craftsmanship, the better.
When checking out this underside of the coat, also ask how much leather was included. The more tiny strips of leather that are used to space out between the strips of mink, the less expensive the garment should be. Inexpensive garments actually look striped with leather. The best mink coats in the world use no leather in the let-out process.
Oh, and if the garment is undyed, in its natural color state, the leather side should be a creamy off-white color. If a coat hangtag makes no mention of dyeing or coloring, and you see dyed leather, move on, because something's wrong.
--Does the garment carry a designer label? These days, designers are more careful about what they put their names on than in the 1970s, when designer toilet paper was the joke. In the past few seasons, we've seen designers begee more involved with the furs that carry their names. You'll pay more for a designer-label coat for its fashion, but also because a designer endorsement offers a certain assurance of quality.
--How many pelts are in the garment? You don't need the number, but remember that the greater amount of raw material used to make the coat, the greater the cost. This can be deceptive. Sometimes short coats with wide sweeps and huge collars or hoods can actually contain more pelts than long, narrow coats.
-- Did any special processing go into making the coat, such as dyes or tanning of the leather side to make it reversible? Technology is great and the fashions it creates are wonderful, but it does add $$$.
-- Does it carry a pelt label, such as Blackglama, Saga or NAFA Gold? Garments with pelt labels offer another endorsement of the quality of pelts and therefore cost more. But what do they mean?
What colors of mink do you sell and in what quantity? Which is most popular? (Unusual shades of mink, such as the nonstandard grays, creams, tans and white shades are often known as mutations, since they are genetic mutations and rarely found in the wild but have been bred on farms.)
Black mink is most popular, and we sell 1.4 million annually in addition to 700,000 Brown, 150,000 Dark Brown, 350,000 Blue Iris and 100,000 various mutations.
So just how much should you expect to spend for a respectable quality mink coat? Obviously there is no one right answer. Buy the best mink you can afford, because it won't let you down. It's pretty safe to say you won't find a good quality mink coat for under $3,000. The bulk of the market seems to fall into the $4,000 to $10,000 category. If you're shopping at a department store, that means the sale price, not the original price. In general, a fine mink coat starts at $12,000 and can reach $50,000 if it uses a special construction technique and bears a designer label. And then there's that other category called Fendi, which just charges whatever the market will bear, seemingly without much relationship to quality or value.