Precious furs: names and characteristics

From being fundamental protection against the cold for our ancestors to exclusive and precious garments for today’s fashion: the term fur indicates a coat covered with varying length hair from a species of mammals; each with its distinctive characteristics, ranging from the length and texture of the hair, passing through the shades of colour and the ability to resist use.

Precious furs: what they are

In the technical language of the fur sector, the classification is called grading, the high pile furs are long nap, while short hair is a short nap. These are the most commonly used terms when it comes to describing fur’s qualities and value. Which fur skins are the finest? Let’s list them here:

– beaver;
– sable;
– fox;
– lynx;
– mink;
– chinchilla;
– ermine;
– astrakhan.

Characteristics of fine furs

Beaver: one of the first skins on sale in a fur auction
It is certainly not among the finest, but one of the oldest furs in the world; the beaver’s fur is a short nap, waterproof, thick and very soft. Colours range from black to grey passing from reddish.

Sable: the finest furs in the world

Thanks to its characteristics and peculiarities, sable is undoubtedly one of the most renowned and expensive furs; warmth, lightness and very natural tones, the thick coat of the sable is extremely soft and silky. The fur of the Russian sable, or Sobol, is by far the most precious in the world.

Fox: the fashionable furs

One of the best known and most worn, fox fur owes its success to very specific characteristics: very soft and silky long nap hair and bright and luminous colours, obviously due to fox species of origin. The best-selling and renowned are the fur of silver fox, Greenland/blue fox, red fox.

Lynx: accurate workmanship

Among the various lynx skins, the most valuable is the Russian one: thanks to accurate and scrupulous processing, the darker parts of the coat (on the back and sides) are discarded to use only the remaining white-spotted part from the belly.

Mink: tireless evergreen

Whether it is accessories or jackets, mink fur is undeniably one of the most appreciated and used by women over time; shiny and shiny short nap hair, smooth and with a good duration over time, shades of colour ranging from light brown almost fawn to very dark brown. The finest mink farms, the Black Glama mink, are located in Canada.

Chinchilla – elegant and delicate luxury

A chinchilla fur is an exclusive garment and unquestionably not for everyone: ultra-soft and bright fur with colours packed with black & white shades, the chinchilla fur is very delicate because of its very slender coat.

Stoat: the fur of the nobles

The stoat has a very fine fur that was especially used to embellish the cloaks of nobles and monarchs in the past. Especially in the elegant white variant, splendid and refined short nap fur, more commonly in red-brown shades.

Astrakhan: style and elegance in the nineties

It comes from the processing of the skins of karakul, a sheep native to Central Asia. A very dark black coat, very fine short nap hair, soft, shiny and slightly wavy; astrakhan fur is currently in great demand on the Italian market after being back in fashion in the nineties.