WEIRDLAND: Vampish fur and film noir-esque mink

Monday, October 24, 2011

Vampish fur and film noir-esque mink

"She's out in the morning before nine wearing her new mink coat and it's already 85 degrees, she looks like she's about to give up hope. I look at the people sitting at the bus stop, people need dignity and love, love and understanding. I was a fish all night left out of the sea, there was nobody that wasn't after me. I was a bird, yeah, and it started to rain, you know I wondered if everybody could feel my pain. I look at the people, everyone's the same" -"Mink Coat At The Bus Stop", song by Rickie Lee Jones

Lana Turner wears a mink coat given to her by the fourth of her seven husbands, Lex Barker.

(Jean Harlow) In the Golden Age of Hollywood the wearing of furs in movies signified luxury and glamour.

Greer Garson wearing furs in a fantasy scene in "Her Twelve Men" (1954), designed by Helen Rose.

(Norman Shearer) This was mimicked in society too, and from the 1930s through the mid 50s.

Lana Turner posing in a Fur Coat in 1947

1950's style: Truly luxurious black wool over coats, mink stoles and warm grey mink collars.

Nowadays the demand for faux fur and mink coats has increased, and advances in the technology of making simulated fur has gotten to the point where it can accurately replicate mink, fox, leopard or cheetah. These faux minks not only look great but are made so that the fibers have the texture of the genuine fur.

Joan Crawford plays socialite Lorna Hansen Forbes in "The Damned Don't Cry" (1950) directed by Vincent Sherman.
Lorna’s background melts under scrutiny, and it becomes clear that Lorna is a fake name.
She shows up at a joyless, poverty stricken town packed with shacks and oil rigs. One of those shacks is home.
Strip away the mink, the jewels and the fancy name and Lorna is in fact… plain old Edith Whitehead (Joan Crawford).

Milquetoast Marty would have allowed Edith to run the show, and he would have been happy to labour under a mink-lined leash. Unfortunately Edith is fatally attracted to Castleman’s power --clearly an aphrodisiac, and she fails to understand that it won’t rub off on her; she’s still basically a tool, albeit a tool of a powerful gangster.

Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford in "The big heat" (1953) directed by Fritz Lang

Gloria Grahame plays a gangster moll in "The Big Heat", in a scene she tells a fellow fur-cloaked woman: “We’re sisters under the mink.”

The mink coat signified prestige, material success. But also a symbol of enslavement. In a scene late in the film, when Gloria's character had risked her own skin and is looking for revenge, she wears the coat tightly bound, clasped at the neck.



Young auto mechanic Dan Brady (Mickey Rooney) takes $20 from a cash register at work to go on a date with blonde femme fatale Vera Novak (Jeanne Cagney). Brady intends to put the money back before it is missed, but the garage's bookkeeper shows up earlier than scheduled. As Brady scrambles to cover evidence of his petty theft, he fast finds himself drawn into an ever worsening "quicksand" of crime, each of his misdeeds more serious than the last.
His descent is sped along by his heartless and morally lacking boss Oren Mackay (Art Smith), and the seedy owner of a pinball arcade on Santa Monica Pier, Nick Dramoshag (Peter Lorre).
Brady and Vera split when Vera purchases a mink coat with money Brady has stolen. Brady's still-loyal but unappreciated former girlfriend Helen (Barbara Bates) then reenters the scene and tries to woo him back.

Models: Lara Stone and Alexander Skarsgard, Photographer: Peter Lindbergh, Stylist: Grace Coddington -Vogue US, July 2011

There’s one of Gucci’s coloured fur pieces in lilac; there’s a boat-necked piece with fur trim; and there’s this Miu Miu dress with flittering sequin swallows, capped off by fur sleeves.

Vintage Mink Stole Autumn Haze Silk - Lined 1950s Mad Men

A model wearing a Black Mink Faux-Fur Hook Vest


"White Mink Black Cotton 2 Electro Swing vs Speakeasy Jazz Vol.2" CD#1, track 02.
White Mink : Black Cotton 2, Cyril Noir-Gal From Joe's [Bohemian Remix]

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