12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: Make your case that the name/page is broken in the Opening Post, or the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what "Make your case" means.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
Although fur historically was worn for warmth, it's also for centuries been associated with wealth and glamour. Thus some outfits have fur, even if they don't have to be, just because everything's more stylish, more grand, more sexy (since some folk like how soft fur feels, and how it looks wrapped around a woman, or a guy).
Fur worn for more than warmth alone has been around since perhaps as long as civilization. In Europe, it largely started in earnest when power shifted from Rome to Central and Northern Europe. This was around the time kings brought the ErmineCape to the Ermine Cape Effect. That combined with Sumptuary Laws about who could wear what kind of fur made this quite the luxury, save for the least expensive, like sheepskin.
The trope is as old as plays in the medieval era, but film is where it's most evident. One theory is that black and white films needed more sensation and went tactile. This idea is still plausible — unless it's explicitly for warmth or to mark a character, fur in fiction is almost always used to pretty up the scene (especially as part of Costume Porn). Even today, with Fur and Loathing, fake fur is often used for glamour.
At one point furs were so common they didn't provide characterisation the way they do today under the Hollywood Dress Code. The exceptions were very specific outfits, like the classic pimp coat. What fur was worn was generally chosen one of two ways. The first was reflecting whatever trends was popular for a certain demographic. The second was whatever the designer felt like.
These days furs are less common and tend to show Conspicuous Consumption. Pretty in Mink now has competition from Fur and Loathing, where a woman in a fur coat is evil — the Rich Bitch, The Vamp or worse. Other characters who wear fur tend to do it for a single special episode.
Now since this is about gratuitous use of fur, it's not just any instance of wearing fur. Even if a fur is worn for warmth, it also has to be an excuse to have a nice fur in the scene to count for this trope. Thus an Inuit parka usually doesn't count, unless the parka is dwelt upon lovingly and is designed to be stylish.
Sister Tropes include Hell-Bent for Leather, Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry, Fluffy Fashion Feathers, Opera Gloves, Gold Makes Everything Shiny, An Ice Suit, Sexy Coat Flashing.
Emba Mink did a variation. Instead of stars wearing fur, they would show stars snuggling up to pretty ladies wearing fur (might have been their wives or girlfriends). The slogan: "Wrap Yourself In Something Special."
In the opening of one of the Sailor Moonmovies, Minako is trying on different clothes, and finally shows up in a fur coat (also with Artemis lying around her neck). The others aren't impressed, but more because of the way she's acting.
Fay from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle wears a huge, luxuriant white fur overcoat—over at least two more full layers of clothing! Since he's from an ice-world, bulky fur is one of the few ways to glam up his appearance.
Although a villain, the Moon Empress of Yaiba wears an outfit likely for this trope, consisting of white fur trim on her cape, her Opera Gloves, and the neckline of her Playboy Bunny outfit.
In Danger Girl, Abigail wears a mink coat to infiltrate a party.
In Silver Age Superman comics, Lois Lane was constantly competing with Lana Lang for Superman's affections. In this cover from an old comic, Lois goes back in time to prevent Lana and Superman from forming a romantic attachment, and just because of this trope, she's wearing a fur coat.
Broadway Melody Of 1940 had an agent who used an ermine cape (not the royal kind) as a way to get dates. It was apparently based on a Real Life Hollywood agent, just that the real version used a silver fox wrap instead.
Suzie Q: In the opening, the titular heroine wears a white fur wrap on the way to a dance.
A Muppet Family Christmas sends this one up. Kermit tells Miss Piggy he got her a mink for Christmas, and she's thrilled until she meets the mink — a live anthropomorphic mink named Maureen. Piggy is about to karate chop Kermit into next week, but then Maureen exclaims that she is Piggy's biggest fan, and Piggy quickly warms up to her.
That Lady In Ermine fits this trope perfectly. Despite the name, the titular character seems to be wearing an ermine coat just because. It could have been a lot of things for what the plot was about. The final scene of the movie has her descendant wear a different kind of ermine coat, that more fit that era, or at least the Hollywood Costuming version.
That Touch Of Mink also fits this trope perfectly. There is a mink coat, and... it has almost nothing else to do with the plot, but it's pretty.
In the 1954 film of Casino Royale, Valerie Mathis wear a particularly big mink coat.
In American Dreamer, Kathy, thinking she's Rebbecca Ryan, goes on a shopping spree, which includes several furs, which also get plenty of screentime later on.
The Bad and the Beautiful has at least one fur in each flashback. Respectively there was an ermine jacket, a dress trimmed with white fox, and a white mink wrap.
Gypsy: Notably a white rabbit coat and hat June wears for one of the acts, and a mink coat Gypsy wears that she lets her mother wear at the end. The first film version even had Gypsy wear a dress with a skirt covered entirely with white fox.
The opening scene of Singin' in the Rain is a film premiere, and several actresses show up in fur capes.
In Ronin a figure skater wears a mink coat when she arrives for a show. She later gets killed, but because her friend is involved in espionage and lets her die when some hold her hostage.
The films Jayne Mansfield starred in gave her plenty of furs.
In the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the bratty Veruca Salt wore one (of four!) to the factory. And the actress's mink coat was specially made for her, since mink coats weren't commonly made in girls' sizes.
The comedy Easy Living begins with a banker getting tired of his wife's fur purchases and throws a sable coat out the window, accidentally falling on the main character.
Why Did I Get Married by Tyler Perry has plenty of furs (at least in the film version), as part of the story is about the main characters are vacationing in Aspen.
Hell On Heels The Battle For Mary Kay, Mary Kay wears fur, and even gives a black mink coat to the best saleswoman each year, two such presentations capping the film.
Songlian of Raise the Red Lantern has a few fur trimmed outfits, and a short, white rabbit cape she wears in a scene.
Unfaithfully Yours: Several, with Daphne even asking her sister what fur she would be wearing so Daphne wouldn't wear an identical one.
All I Want For Christmas had a number of scenes of opulent people in New York at Christmastime, so there were a number of furs, including Hallie wearing a white rabbit fur muff when she goes to correct her wish to Santa.
In Stage Door, Socialite Terry Randall wants to break into show business, and stays at a boarding house for actresses. She does bring a lot of her clothes, including a lot of her furs. She even lets her roommate, Jean, borrow her short ermine cape with the line "You may as well go to perdition in ermine. You're sure to come back in rags."
Matilda the Hun of Death Race 2000 wore a white mink jacket, and even a biker helmet covered in white mink.
Phyllis of Troop Beverly Hills wears a white mink coat on a camping trip, even though it turned out not to be a good idea in a place where it would rain.
Nika in the film of Hitman wears a silver mink coat.
Victoria in Red wears a white mink coat, and a lynx coat.
The wife in the movie Of Unknown Origin wears a blue fox coat when she goes on vacation with her son. Consequently, it's one of the few luxuries they have that isn't wrecked in the film.
Laura has a few, including a mid length fur skirt Laura wears.
The eponymous Gilda has at least three worn in the movie, well two worn and one carried for a song.
Amidala's red dress in The Phantom Menace is trimmed with dark brown fur. Also, possibly, her capes on later costumes.
The trailer for the upcoming movie In Time, we see Sylvia wearing a white fox wrap.
In the 2008 version of Easy Virtue, Larita wears a few furs, like an ermine jacket.
The eponymous The Millionaress wears a number of furs in that film.
In the rich man wish in the first Bedazzled, Stanley buys Margaret a mink coat to make her like him. She enjoys how it feels, but then takes it off to run around with other guys.
Literature
In C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the wardrobe contains fur coats, so the children conveniently take them for warmth. When spring comes, they shed them. At the end of the book, they feel obliged to explain to Professor Kirk what had happened to his coats.
The Widow Of Desire is a Cold War spy thriller written in The Eighties, about how a Russian furrier living in the US is murdered, and his American wife learns it was because he was involved in trying to bust apart a Soviet coup attempt. A Russian Lynx coat even ends up being a MacGuffin.
In Louisa May Alcott's short story A Christmas Dream, a rich girl named Effie has a dream where an angel makes a grand Christmas for poor children, including turning the show falling on her into a white fur cape and hood. When she tells her dream to her family, her mother decides to make that dream happen, right down to buying Effie a little white fur coat to wear, to look like the outfit the angel was wearing.
In Bride Of The Rat God by Barbara Hambly, the would-be bride is a movie star, and lets her cousin frequently borrow her furs, including a chinchilla coat. That's the clothing equivalent of loaning a Mercedes.
The Discworld books don't hide where fur comes from, but it accepts it as a part of life in this pseudo-medieval world. One of the most popular glamour furs is the white fur of the Vermine. There are a few digs about it for the sake of humor, such as the line, "the fur is highly prized, especially by the vermine itself", in Sourcery.
The Lord of the Rings books and film has nobility and royalty wearing fur occasionally.
Sacher-Masoch's Venus In Furs combines this trope with a heavy dose of domme and the titular character's only duty as the narrator's Mistress being to swathe herself in sumptuous furs, regardless of the temperature. Played as a kink, but referencing the historical luxury and power overtones of wearing furs.
Whateley Universe example: Rich Bitch Solange in her custom-made furs in "Ayla and the Great Shoulder Angel Conspiracy". Kodiak even thinks about getting her to wear her fur and nothing else that evening...
In Neuromancer, furs are grown from tissue on a bed of collagen, because most animals have died out, making them relatively widespread for a dystopia.
The Roald Dahl short story Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel's Coat is about an adulterous woman trying to keep the mink coat she got from her lover without raising her husband's suspicions. It was adapted into an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Bobbsey Twins: In the early editions of the very first book (published 1904), Nan Bobbsey — at age eight — says that all she want for Christmas is "a set of furs ... a beautiful brown set, just like Mamma's." And she gets them.
In the Xanth novel Centaur Isle, Princess Irene is given a silver-lined fur by the centaurs.
Desperate Housewives has a few, like the sable coat Bree wore to seduce her estranged husband.
Dynasty: Dynasty could well be in the top ten shows of all time in terms of furs.
The Colbys: Added to its spin-off parent Dynasty it would top them all for total fur count.
Hotel even starts an episode with a fur fashion show.
Sex and the City: So many furs. And in keeping with the "Everything's Better With" spirit of this trope, the furs are some of the few outfits worn more than once.
Russell's mother in Rules Of Engagement wears a chinchilla wrap when she takes him out to dinner.
Are You Being Served?: A few times a fur was a minor plot point. One was when a lady comes in to buy a fur, and Hilarity Ensues when Mrs. Slocombe and Mr. Humphries compete for the commission.
Nouvelle Vague's video for their cover of "Eisbär" ("Polar Bear") features the singer laying on a polar bear rug. This is a song that goes something like "I'd like to be a polar bear, at the cold pole." Hmm...yes, so she says as she strokes the fur.
Anne Murray wears a silver fox coat for much of the video for her song "Now & Forever".
The Jenny Lewis song "Rabbit Fur Coat" uses it as a metaphor when singing about her trouble past, but at the end does sing about the symbolic coat favorably.
Monique Van Vooren had an album "Mink in Hi-Fi", and the cover was her in a white mink wrap, surrounded by a pile of other mink clothes.
Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground did the musical version of ''Venus in Furs", where masochism goes hand-in-glove with the right sort of fetish clothing:
''Downy sins of streetlight fancies/
Chase the costumes she shall wear;/
Ermine furs adorn the imperious,/
Severin, Severin, awaits you there''
Tabletop Games
Some magic items in Dungeons & Dragons require fur as their material, such as the "Cloak of Lordliness", which requires ermine when made for a human royal.
The Folk of the Pines, in the "Ice Age" set of Magic: The Gathering, are dryads who wear coats trimmed with white fur, that actually merges with the snow on their trees.
Squall Leonhart, the protagonist of Final Fantasy VIII, has a fur collar on his bomber jacket. Nomura included the fur to give the FMV team a challenge.
Vanille in Final Fantasy XIII wears a brown fur Showgirl Skirt... from a bear she personally killed, showing she's not only pretty in mink, but also pretty and dangerous.
Cate Archer wears a fur trimmed coat in both No One Lives Forever games, the second being a winter coat with chinchilla cuffs and a hood.
Fate/stay night: Gilgamesh combines this with Fur and Loathing, and expresses the Rich Bitch part to the hilt. In later incarnations without his pimping coat, he's not as flamboyant, dangerous or, quite frankly, stylin'.
Arc Rise Fantasia: Adelle's outfit has white fur trim, and some white fur puff balls.
Ruby of Alundra 2 wears a mini dress trimmed with white fur.
In Xenosaga III, Shion wears a jacket with a fur collar.
Several outfits in the Dragon Quest games, although until VIII, most were just in the artwork instead of in-game.
Ashei, the lady knight, wears a mink costume on Snowpeak Mountain in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It's justified in the sense that she's incognito as a yeti, but when she takes off the head of the costume, her expression of surprise (at meeting Link) makes her fit this trope in an adorable fashion.
The Water tribe coats in Avatar: The Last Airbender are for warmth, but stylish enough to be this trope as well. Mai's fur-trimmed robe, and Toph's fur puff balls on her headdress, definitely are this trope.
Anastasia: A few, like the fur-trimmed coat she wears to the opera, and her grandmother's fur wrap.
Daria: Quinn's Pimped Out Dress for a school play was trimmed with white fur (likely fake, even in a cartoon, but still this trope).
Winx Club: Headmistress Faragonda's sleeping gown is lined with fur and the matching shoes have furballs on them. In the comics her winter coat has fur as well.
A few in The Cleveland Show, including a coat Donna wore in a Blaxploitation film she did years before, and Rallo got in trouble for wearing nothing but a mink coat and underwear for a school picture.
In one episode of The Jetsons, George and Mr. Spacely were in a competition where the prize was a mink coat, which each man wanted to give to his wife. They ended up in a tie and had a tug-of-war with the coat itself, causing it to tear. This worked out, since one wife ended up with a mink jacket and the other used the bottom half as a mink skirt. A somewhat ironic example, since the whole premise of the show was that mankind had to live miles above the earth due to environmental irresponsibility.
Queen Elizabeth II got a mink wrap as a gift for her wedding. She wore it, and other fur wraps, quite often going out (probably because they were light compared to all the regalia she wore). This might have influenced how the fur wrap became such a common style of fur in The Fifties.
Diana even had a white mink jacket.
So many red carpet events, even today.
The aforementioned Hollywood agent using a silver fox wrap to get dates.
Celine Dion has worn a couple, like a white fox wrap for a magazine shoot, and a white mink jacket to go with her wedding dress.
John Morrison wears a furry coat... jacket... thing, upon his entrance.
Is a common decoration for a Pimped Out Dress throughout history.
Take this description of a dress from 1742:
My lady 2 ' was in dark green velvet trimmed with ermine, and an ermine petticoat — a present from her son, but it would have better suited the slender-waisted daughter Fanny, who had a scarlet damask...
Ermine petticoats, as well as other fur petticoats, were actually a popular accessory for centuries, like in this picture from 1694, or this outfit from 1957.
Catherine The Great of Russia was born in Germany, and for when it was really cold, she also had an outfit with an ermine skirt.
NFL Quarterback Joe Namath was (in)famous for wearing one on the sidelines.
This hitherto unpublished editorial of model Kailee O'Sullivan.
Joan Rivers did a comedy album called "What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most", as a take on the Blackglama campaign, and she wore a black mink on the cover.
Her daughter Melissa Rivers wore a sable muff as part of her wedding outfit.
