The New Yorker: My Long-time Love

I needed some diversion yesterday morning, so I sat and read "Mink Inc." by Lauren Collins from the October 23, 2006 issue of The New Yorker. I have been reading this magazine on and off since I was sixteen. It's literary, informative, entertaining and, gosh, a person can learn a lot about a whole lot of things just by sitting down to read an issue or two. Here's two paragraphs from Lauren Collins' article. It made me cackle out loud with glee. And I do sincerely apologize if I've offended anyone who's opposed to fur coats for ethical reasons or if this comes across as fat-phobic. I offer it strictly in the spirit of fun.

A few years ago, Ervin Rosenfeld was asked to make a mink jacket for the Bronx rapper Fat Joe. This would not be just any mink jacket; it had to be the pale blue of a Tiffany box, light as champagne fizz, and flattering to a man who was said to weigh three hundred and seventy pounds. Equipped with Fat Joe's favorite North Face parka as a template, Rosenfeld set to work on the garment, for a video called "We Thuggin'." He tracked down a skin, a white ranched female mink, and had it dyed the requested hue; after stitching the pieces together, he cut up pillows and stuffed the material between the fur and the lining, to get a quilted effect. The resulting creation, a sixe XXXXXL bomber jacket, was ready for delivery in three days. But there was a problem. Fat Joe was indeed so fat that Rosenfeld didn't have enough blue mink left to fulfill the other half of the commission. Never mind that the video was set on Memorial Day, in Miami; the R. & B. singer R. Kelly was meant to appear alongside Fat Joe in an identical coat.

Rosenfeld decided to go for what passes in his oeuvre for minimalism. He snipped the sleeves off the pattern, leaving the armholes huge and gaping, and attached a pouch of mink at the back of the collar. Voila. He had invented the sleeveless fur hoodie. It's a look still spoken of reverentially in certain quarters. ...

The article goes on to tell Ervin Rosenfeld's story and how and why he is favored by artists in the hip-hop scene. I feel like a better person for having read it, and I imagine I'll still be chuckling next week as I think about those guys in their Tiffany box-blue furs, posing by a pool on Memorial Day.

Happy Sunday!