Fortunate Encounters

Martin Faucher's from fabulous workshop.

What a blessing, a friend and I avoided a major car accident and still managed to meet with my fairy godmother to remodel my fur coat! No worries folks, my friend and I made it without a scratch  as we arrived an hour later at Samuel Fur shop in Laval! I was finally going to meet the great Martin Faucher, an instructor in the fur department at College Marie-Victorin. There was no doubt in my heart that our encounter was going to be the beginning of something special.

As we stood in front of the store, emotions were running high, sweat was dripping down my forehead and my pulse began to speed up. I was so excited about meeting one of Montreal’s most reputed fur designers. Although I looked like a mess I kept my cool, switched my flats for heels and we walked inside.

In the storage room with Martin Faucher.

With a warm welcome, Martin Faucher gave us a tour of his boutique  and workshop. Also, he shared some of his most memorable experiences in the world of fur business. With a single touch he was able to determine my raccoon coat’s condition. To my surprise, Martin mentioned that my well kept fur coat had another twenty-five years life span. He explained the elasticity of the fur and its craftsmanship limitations. Martin quickly dismissed the patch work technique applied in some model ideas I had for my coat. His reason for this was that both techniques were not compatible, mine was a letting out work.

Left: Patchwork technique. Right: Letting Out technique.

Although my bubble was burst for a moment, he found solutions to compensate for my petite stature and curvy silhouette. We closely examined how sheared fur around the waist line better defines my body shape. When used wisely this sheared fur technique on long fur sleeves can asthetically create a contrast effect and even sometimes resurface hidden colors from the fur. What caught my attention were leather patches used on waist sides of a coat that can create similar sliming benefits. Hey, anything to avoid looking like a fur ball!

Leather sample.

Last but not least, my fabulous fury hood! We discussed it’s volume, oh yeah, I want it huge and fluffy! Martin mentioned that the weight of my hood could become a hazard because the heavier it is, the  less it stays put on your head. We concluded that we could make a leather collar to attach the hood to prevent it from falling. Well, well, problem resolved!

As a dedicated designer he was determined to find the right style of coat that would fulfill my desires. Needless to say, that I was the most enthusiastic visitor to try on from a variety of fur coat styles!