A fur or shearling coat is usually one of the most expensive things hanging in a closet, and one of the least understood. Most of the damage these coats suffer does not happen while they are being worn. It happens in the months they spend doing nothing, in a plastic bag, in a warm room, through a Sacramento summer.
With the cool months coming, now is the right time to look at what is hanging at the back of the closet. The care is not complicated. It is just different from what you would do with a wool overcoat, and doing the wool coat routine on fur is exactly how coats get ruined.
Real Fur, Faux Fur, and Shearling Are Three Different Problems
They get lumped together, and they should not be:
- Real fur is animal hide with the hair still attached. The hide is leather, and like all leather it holds natural oils that keep it supple. Lose those oils and the hide dries, stiffens, and eventually cracks. Once it cracks, it cannot be undone
- Faux fur is a synthetic pile fabric, usually polyester or acrylic on a knit or woven backing. It does not dry out, but it does mat, crush, and melt. Heat is its enemy, and a hot dryer or a hot iron will permanently flatten or fuse the pile
- Shearling is sheepskin with the wool left on, so it is leather on one side and wool on the other. It has to be treated as leather first. It is also heavy, which means it loses its shape quickly if it is hung wrong
A coat that is fur-trimmed rather than full fur is its own case, because the body of the coat and the trim often need completely different handling, and the trim is usually the part that gets ruined.
What Actually Damages Fur, and It Is Not Dirt
People tend to worry about fur getting dirty. Dirt is rarely what kills a coat. The real causes are:
- Dry heat, which pulls the natural oils out of the hide. A warm closet, an attic, or a spot near a heating vent will do more damage over one summer than a whole season of wear
- Light, which fades and yellows fur over time, particularly pale and dyed furs
- Plastic, which traps moisture against the hide and blocks the air the leather needs to stay healthy
- Compression, which permanently crushes the pile when a coat is jammed between other garments
- Moths and carpet beetles, which are drawn to the wool in shearling and to any residue left on the fur
Home Care You Can Safely Do
The list of safe home care is short, and that is rather the point:
- Shake a coat out gently after wearing it, and hang it somewhere with air around it before it goes back in the closet
- If it gets caught in the rain, shake off the water and hang it to dry at room temperature, away from any heat source. Never use a dryer, a hair dryer, or a radiator
- Hang fur on a broad-shouldered wooden or padded hanger, never a wire one, which will dent the shoulders over months
- Brush faux fur gently with a wide-tooth comb or a soft brush to lift matted pile, working in the direction of the nap
- Give the coat room. Fur needs space on either side of it, not to be squeezed between suits
What to avoid entirely: water and household cleaners on real fur, machine washing anything with a hide, ironing faux fur, spraying perfume or hairspray onto fur, and home dry cleaning kits.
The Storage Mistakes That Ruin Coats Every Summer
Most fur damage is storage damage:
- Storing in a plastic garment bag or a vacuum bag, which suffocates the hide and traps humidity. Use a breathable cloth bag instead
- Storing in a warm closet, which is the default in most homes and the single most common cause of a dried-out hide. Cool, dark, and with some air movement is what fur wants
- Storing it dirty, which is the mistake that costs the most, because invisible body oils and food residue attract insects and set into stains over months
- Folding rather than hanging, which creases the hide at the fold and can crack it
- Cedar blocks and mothballs pressed directly against fur, which dry the hide and leave odor in the pile
Why Cleaning Before Storage Matters More Than Cleaning After
This is the part worth remembering. A coat that goes into storage carrying a season of body oils, perfume, and restaurant air comes out in the fall with all of it set in, plus whatever insects were attracted to it in the meantime. A coat that goes in clean comes out ready to wear.
The cleaning itself is the same either way. The whole difference is in what those five or six months do to a garment that has residue sitting in it. If you only clean a fur coat once a year, do it at the end of the season rather than the start of the next one.
When to Let Us Handle It
Fur, shearling, and fur-trimmed coats should never go through an ordinary dry cleaning cycle, and any cleaner who tells you otherwise is not one to leave a coat with. Bring your coat to Vogue Cleaners before it goes into storage and we will assess the hide, the pile, and the lining, then handle it with the process the material actually calls for, or tell you plainly when a piece needs a dedicated fur specialist rather than us. We would rather send you to the right place than take a risk with a coat that cannot be replaced.
A fur coat does not wear out from being worn. It wears out from a summer in a plastic bag in a warm closet.
Ready to give your clothes the care they deserve? Schedule a pickup or sign up for Vogue Valet today and enjoy expertly cared-for clothes without the hassle.
