Naked in Mink



"And I started thinking about what would be "awesome" for Bill Engvall? What would leave me in awe and wonder? And it would have to be if I left this stage tonight and went back to my hotel room. And Shania Twain met me at my door, wearing nothing but a fur coat, holding a note from my wife that said "have a good time." That would be awesome!

(beat)

It ain't gonna happen, but that would be awesome."

- Bill Engvall

Going out naked is embarrassing, and could get you arrested. Well if you have nothing else handy, a fur coat, wrap or cape will do. It's stylish, covers up all the naughty bits, and is great Fetish Fuel.

Yet, this is quite often a deliberate seduction move, combining with Ready for Lovemaking. Why is this such a turn on? Rule Thirty Four, of course. And in many ways it's better at implying actual nudity than a thong bikini (but not a wet T-shirt).

And not even a full coat is necessary. In the early days of Hollywood, glamor shots would often have an actress wear a fur wrap, and be shot in a way that looks as though she wore nothing else. For some reason, the Hays office allowed it, probably because they weren't actually naked. But the allusion in those is still clear.

Sometimes this is a ploy to distract one's husband from the fact that a fair chunk of the family finances were just sunk into this fur coat.

Yet other times, there is no seduction, and the fur coat is just an emergency cover up, just often a sexy one.

Now this trope doesn't count if you actually see any nudity. Then it's just a nude shot with the fur as an accessory.

Roland Barthes says this trope exists because the fur reminds us of pubic hair. This wiki, on the other hand, says the trope exists because fur reminds us of (a) lavish (and corrupt) luxury and (b) the intensely enjoyable experience of touching the stuff.

A Sub Trope of Pretty in Mink.

Compare Fur Bikini, Godiva Hair (hair instead of fur), Naked Apron (which is something similar with a cooking apron), Modesty Towel (ditto with a towel), Going Fur a Swim, Cleavage Window, Diamonds in The Buff, Going Commando, Sexy Coat Flashing.

Anime & Manga

 * Peacemaker Kurogane: Nothing screams "villain" more than having Suzu seductively wearing nothing but a loose, black fur robe.

Film
"Delysia: There is something so sensual about the feeling of fur against skin!"
 * The film version of 42nd Street had a really subtle one. In the Busby Berkeley Number, there was a woman in a fur-trimmed dress, with a huge white fur muff. If you paid close attention, you'd see she was actually wearing a fur trimmed skirt with a white fur wrap. The muff was constantly held over her midriff to make it not so obvious that the wrap was the only thing keeping her you-know-what covered. This was before the Hays Office became as powerful as it was (although it was started a few years before), and may have even led to its rise to power.
 * A rare instance with a guy was in Lover Come Back, when Rock Hudson was abandoned naked on the beach by Doris Day (and he deserved it). So he was later picked up by a truck carrying fur coats, and he was forced to wear one to get back into his apartment. Since we now know Rock was gay, this may or may not be Hilarious in Hindsight.
 * At the beginning of Stir Crazy, Gene Wilder's character is working as an in-house detective at a department store when he accuses a female shopper (whom he recognizes as a famous actress) of both a.) shoplifting the fur coat she's wearing and b.) having nothing on underneath. In the next scene he's been fired from the job for harassing said customer; we never learn whether he was correct in either of his assumptions.
 * Sean Young pulls this with a fur coat in No Way Out.
 * In Miss Pettigrew Lives for A Day, Delysia Lafosse takes off the silk robe she seduced a man in the night before, then puts on a fur coat with nothing else under it just before her boyfriend comes in. And... really enjoys it.

""But he has been shot. And I do not carry a gun."
 * In The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Olga Beriosova (Lesley-Anne Down) seduces Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) in a scene that is beyond words.

"Obviously not, no...""


 * Jean in The Greeks Had a Word For Them seduces a man this way.
 * In A Fine Mess, Claudia Pazzo (Maria Conchita Alonso) arrives at Spence Holden's (Ted Danson) apartment wearing a white fox fur coat. Spence asks if he could take her coat and Claudia says, "Sure", while and walking into Spence's bedroom wearing only panties.

Literature

 * In Leopold Sacher-Masoch's Venus in Furs, this is featured prominently amidst other Fetish Fuel.
 * Which then inspired a similarly fetish fuel song by The Velvet Underground.
 * And a song that may be about this by Electric Wizard. With them, God only knows...

Live Action TV

 * The picture comes from the Marilyn Monroe episode of Quantum Leap. Her assistant tries on one of her fur coats, and comes this close to showing that was about all she was wearing.
 * On Ugly Betty, Wilhelmina first tried to seduce Bradford this way. She also used this trope to counter a fur protester wearing nothing but burlap. Both times she wore one side off the shoulder to make it clear there was nothing underneath.
 * There was a series called Good And Evil, and in one scene, the "Evil" character tried to seduce a guy by wearing nothing but a mink coat and flashing him. We only saw her from behind, so it counts as this trope.
 * Happened with Bree (coat-wearer) arriving at her husband Orson's dental practice. Cue coat drop. She did this once before but was wearing red lingerie underneath on that occasion.
 * There's footage of Eartha Kitt performing "Santa Baby" back in the day, barely covered by a length of white fur. It can be watched here.
 * Carmella does this in The Sopranos. It's actually rather creepy just because of the level of materialism implied by the whole thing.
 * An episode of Sledge Hammer does an homage to Noir Detectives. An early scene has a wealthy client in Sledge's office wearing a fur coat. He offers that she take it off, but she replies that she just came from modeling for the art school down the street and is naked underneath. He responds, "in that case, I insist."
 * Kimberly Cryder in Dallas wore a sable coat to meet JR, and then took it off just to show what he could have had.
 * The temple seduction scene from the Xena: Warrior Princess episode "Amphipolis Under Siege" is well-known in the Ares/Xena 'Shipper community. Ahem.
 * In That 70s Show, Kitty tells Donna that when Red left for Korea, she gave him a budoir photo of her wearing nothing but a fur coat.
 * In the first episode of Spartacus Blood and Sand, Ilithyia somehow sneaks into a military camp wearing nothing but a fur coat to surprise her husband in his tent.
 * An episode of Mad Men had Pete Campbell fantasizing about a woman he had recently slept with surprising him in his office wearing nothing but a fur coat and heels.

Stand Up Comedy

 * In a Tim Allen comedy bit, he tells about his wife trying this on him with a new coat she bought behind his back. His response? "Don't stain it; we're taking it back in the morning." He also made a point that it didn't work in reverse. She'd hardly let buying a sports car slide if he rolled up in it wearing nothing but driving gloves.

Real Life

 * According to Princess Diana's former butler, he would often smuggle men into the palace in the trunk of his car, to be greeted by the Princess wearing only a fur coat and jewels.
 * Princess Diana's former butler is generally agreed to be somewhat "reality-challenged" these days, though...
 * Marianne Faithfull, in the legendary Mars bar incident, was allegedly only wearing a fur rug.
 * According to her autobiography she was indeed only wearing a fur rug, but the Mars bar story is not true.
 * A few pin-ups of Dita Von Teese featured this
 * Recounted in Not Since Carrie by Ken Mandelbaum: The musical At The Grand closed before it went to Broadway because its star, Paul Muni, refused to sign a new contract after his preliminary one was up. The other actors were pissed, as the show had been doing good business in previews on the road. By way of revenge, during her curtain call at the final show, Joan Diener turned upstage to face Muni (who hated scantily-clad chorus girls and cleavage) and opened her full-length mink coat "to reveal herself naked but for a long stemmed rose between her legs."