Gilet (pronounced “zhee lay”) is an old-fashioned French term describing a sleeveless bodice with decorative front.
Gilets were worn by men in the late 1850′s and 1860′s with a suit (think “vest”).
The women’s version was typically a frilly front piece, extending from throat to waist, reminiscent of a breastplate of armor. Originally worn this way up thru the mid-20th cent, it was revived in the 1980′s, and apparently is being revived again today.
This season gilets are seen with a zip front in leather and fur.
I’m constantly on the look-out for new product ideas. We don’t proceed with all my bright ideas, and sometimes I find that other people did it first.
I’m also watching our competitors. There’s not much out there that actually competes with our Noble Furs in quality, design or fit. But I keep looking.
Sometimes I find products I really like and enjoy showing to my friends: “you’ve gotta see this!”
So here are my favorite faux fur items that we don’t carry. They’re all high quality in fabric and construction, and very cute.
If you’ve seen a really neat product that’s different, high quality, and worth a look, please let me know.
I’m exhausted from the continual barrage of online ads that interrupt me at every turn.
When I’m reading an article of interest, the last thing I want to see is an advertisement sitting right between the paragraphs, ants crawling across the words, or some cartoon character dancing within my sightline.
I read a news article today that spanned 9 pages. It wasn’t that long – it only had two short paragraphs on each page, but it had ads before, between, below, and on the sides of each page.
I’ve had to turn the sound off on my computer to avoid the blathering babbling from talking ads that appear out of nowhere. If I haven’t clicked on the ad, then I’m not interested.
Have you tried viewing a television show or video online? I watched (or tried to) a 5-minute news video but was interrupted 6 times by 30-second commercials. At least with a personally-recorded show you can fast forward past the commercials.
The guy that invented poop-ups pop-ups has ruined online viewing for me. I’ve turned on the pop-up blocker on my computer, but am left with a bouncing screen. Yes, I do turn off the blocker periodically and on certain sites (my bank uses pop-up screens for each new account action), but sometimes it takes a moment to figure out why I can’t get to the link I’ve just clicked on. And re-setting the blocker is another interruption!
Then there are the moving and flashing ads. It reminds me of my friend’s 8-year old son. He stands directly between his mother and me while we visit in her living room. The kid waves his arms, jumps up and down, grabs at his mother, and makes so much noise that my friend simply has to stop our conversation to pay attention to him. Which she does pretty much all the time anyway. As you can imagine, I don’t see that friend very often.
I know that the current craze is all about movement and color to get our attention, but the current statistic is that people have an attention span of 9 seconds. That’s hardly long enough to make a decision, let alone an effective one. No wonder ADD is on the rise.
Sorry, Jeff Bezos. I won’t be buying a Kindle anytime soon. Paper books should still be an enticement if for no other reason than to avoid the pop-up ads on electronic books.
Just for a few minutes, I’d like to have some quiet wherein I could actually finish a headline, comprehend a paragraph or ponder a product I’d to buy. I consider myself a good reader, but I can’t finish the five bulleted lines in my browser’s teaser section before it automatically switches to the next inane graphic and title.
To that end, we choose to give you those few minutes. Take a break from all that input and peruse our sites at your leisure. We appreciate that you came to visit, and we’d like you to have a good time while you’re here.
We offer you this mini-vaca as our gift And just so you know, we incur extra operating expenses with the following service providers to NOT show ads on our Website pages (which is why there are no links here):
GoDaddy web host
Google site search
WordPress blog host
Let us know what you think about online advertising. Take our survey and tell us whether we’re alone in this.
Today’s high-tech faux fur fabrics are amazing, and sometimes it’s hard to tell whether the coat is real fur from an animal skin or simply faux fur fabric. Here are some hints to help with the mystery:
LABELS
Find the care and content labels. US Federal Trade Commission regulations require that real fur and faux fur fabric be labeled as such.
For real fur, look for words that describe the animal, like “rabbit” or “mink”. Country of origin is also required.
For faux fur, you’ll see fabric descriptions including the words “acrylic” or “pile”. By regulation, the word “fabric” is reserved for faux fur fabrics. Furriers are not allowed to use “fabric” when describing real fur.
BACKSIDE OF THE FUR LAYER
Look at the backside of the fur layer.
If the lining of the coat is hanging free, look inside between the lining and the outer layer.
If the lining of the coat is sealed completely, find a discreet place to disconnect the lining from the outer layer (the hem and inside the sleeve are usually good places). Open about 6 inches of the sleeve seam or hem and peek inside to see the back side of the outer layer of the coat. Don’t forget to re-sew the seam when you’re finished.
Real furs are made from strips of leather that are 1/8” to 1/4” wide by 1” to 3” long, sewn together like a patchwork. Even if there is an attached backing that appears solid like fabric, you may still see and feel the tiny strips and connecting stitches.
If it’s fabric, you can see the weave or knit structure of the fabric backing, and see sewn seams.
These days shearling coats can be made from either real skins or fabrics, and they both have the suede layer and shearling pile layer connected. Look at the shearling layer from the pile side, and spread the pile fibers apart to see what they are connected to. Also look at the layer on its cut edge.
If it’s fabric, you can see the pile fibers connected to the fabric backing like bad hair plugs.
If it’s an animal skin, it will look like skin: a very even spread of hairs to the skin, and you won’t see any real connecting fibers – just a melding of hairs to skin.
ODOR
Try smelling your garment.
If it’s a real fur skin, it will definitely smell like an animal.
If it’s faux fur fabric, it will smell like fabric, and may even have a chemical odor from the fabric finishing process.
STILL IN DOUBT?
If you’re still not sure, visit the coat department of a high end store like Nordstrom or Sak’s and ask a sales person to have a look at your coat. They have experience with both real and faux fur and may be able to help.
