{"id":243998,"date":"2010-11-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-12T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/fur-real-millards-fur-service-specializes-in-skins-care\/"},"modified":"2010-11-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-12T08:00:00","slug":"fur-real-millards-fur-service-specializes-in-skins-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/fur-real-millards-fur-service-specializes-in-skins-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Fur real! Millards Fur Service specializes in skins care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Christy Scannell<\/strong> | Reportero SDUN<\/p>\n

Deanne McGinnis was shopping at Neiman Marcus when she came across a fur blanket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always cold and I thought, \u2018A fur throw\u2014oh my God, isn\u2019t that wonderful?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And then McGinnis remembered the fur coat in her closet she never wore because it was too heavy for her petite frame. Later, she consulted her friend, interior designer Marsha Sewell, who suggested she take it to Millards Fur Service in Hillcrest.<\/p>\n

So the downtown resident\u2014she and husband Dan split their time between a bayfront condo and a home in Palm Desert\u2014made her way to Park Boulevard and Robinson Avenue, where she handed over her nutria fur coat to Dee Dee Kiser, Millards’ owner.<\/p>\n

In a few weeks, McGinnis will pick up her finished blanket at a cost of $650.<\/p>\n

\"Fur<\/a>
Deane McGinnis (behind counter) chats with customers at Millards Fur Service of Hillcrest. (Photo by Christy Scannell). In a few weeks, McGinnis will pick up her finished blanket at a cost of $650.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After McGinnis left, Kiser placed the fur on a sewing form, and as she talked began to dismantle the coat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good thing about fur is it\u2019s recyclable,\u201d Kiser said, snipping away the coat\u2019s lining. \u201c[McGinnis] already popped for [the coat] a long time ago and now she sees that blanket that\u2019s probably $1,500 or so, which means the $650 has become a bargain.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few minutes passed and soon Kiser had separated the coat\u2019s liner and was holding it up to examine it, a pleased look on her face.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is in great shape. I\u2019ll be able to use this for someone else and keep the price down for them,\u201d she said. \u201cI let the person whose stuff I\u2019m working on pay it forward for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a philosophy Kiser, 59, knows well. In 1973 she was working at General Dynamics when Millard Winkley agreed to take her as an apprentice in his fur shop, then located in Little Italy. Although her godmother had taught her to sew, Kiser said she knew nothing about furs or making coats\u2014she just wanted to embroider.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ended up learning every job they had,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery time someone was absent, not doing their job or needed help, I was there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winkley sold the business in the late \u201970s, and Kiser moved on to Hemet but returned occasionally to help the new owner. One day in 1985 she was surprised to enter the shop and see Winkley there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe [previous owner] had racked up $60,000 in debt so he\u2019d sold it back to him,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Winkley, now 92, made Kiser a partner; she bought his half a year later. Although Millards (pronounced muh-LARDZ) was the furrier for all the San Diego department stores, one was missing on the list\u2014and that became new owner Kiser\u2019s first order of business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI marched into Neiman Marcus, me in this fancy store,\u201d she rolls her eyes, \u201cand told them we could do their fur for them locally so they wouldn\u2019t need to ship it all back to Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did she get the account for the San Diego store, Kiser was offered the Newport Beach, Las Vegas and Phoenix stores\u2019 fur needs as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really thank them because they really bought this business for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In 1999, Kiser moved Millards to its current location, chosen for its security and large storeroom. That same year, Neiman Marcus closed its fur department\u2014the last of the area stores to do so.\"Fur<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFur departments weren\u2019t generating enough money and were taking up a lot in space in stores so [the stores] started backing out,\u201d Kiser said.<\/p>\n

Since then she has relied on word of mouth to generate business. It helps that she is only one of two furriers remaining in San Diego out of about 100 nationally. She calls her local competition, Furs by Graf, \u201cmaster sellers\u201d while she is a \u201cmaster craftsman\u201d (she does their monogramming, she points out).<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to know what people want,\u201d Kiser said about the technique of working with fur. \u201cYou have to see the finished picture in your mind before you jump into it because you\u2019re working from the inside. You have to know when you flip it over that you\u2019ll get what you want. And everything is by hand\u2014there are no fast things in the fur business.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are no do-overs and mistakes are forbidden, she said\u2014especially when she is working with coats as rare as, say, a $400,000 Russian lynx.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked [Winkley] one time, \u2018When does my anxiety go away?\u2019 and he laughed and said, \u2018Never, it\u2019s part of the fright of doing such a high-dollar job,\u2019 \u201d Kiser said.<\/p>\n

She might be apprehensive on the inside but she doesn\u2019t let it show to her customers, many of whom are the well-heeled wives of business leaders, professional sports players and government officials. A compact woman, Kiser works with her hair pinned back and a white smock over her clothes. Blues music is constantly playing in the shop, which is scattered with coats, vests, purses, fur scraps, pins and other paraphernalia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get treated like Ugly Betty because I\u2019m not dressed up and I\u2019m all over the floor, working and pulling and pinning,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I get these crazy barracuda women who come in and start bossing me around, telling me how to do what I\u2019ve been doing all these years.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the bottom line is the price,\u201d she raises a fist in the air playfully, \u201cand Ugly Betty triumphs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Kiser is committed to helping customers find bargains. Her massive walk-in storage room\u2014specially climate controlled to preserve fur\u2014holds more than 750 coats for sale plus racks of furs people pay her to keep for them. Many of those for sale she acquired at bargain prices or even free.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come to San Diego and they bring all their cherished things and decide to sell them,\u201d she said. Others leave coats in storage, move away, and then call her to release them for sale. \u201cI have customers who come in and buy furs for pennies on the dollar.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kiser nearly closed Millards last year when the economic downturn required her to put money into the business for the first time. But 2010 has been better, she said, and she hopes to hang in there another five years\u2014 enough time to train an apprentice to carry on the 62-year tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go somewhere and people ask what I do. I tell them I\u2019m a furrier and they think I said \u2018farrier\u2019 and ask if I do horseshoes.\u201d She laughs. \u201cAnd then when I say, \u2018No, a furrier,\u2019 they think I\u2019m even crazier to be doing that in San Diego. But I tell them it works because we\u2019re a service. People find us.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Christy Scannell | SDUN Reporter Deanne McGinnis was shopping at Neiman Marcus when she came across a fur blanket. \u201cI\u2019m always cold and I thought, \u2018A fur throw\u2014oh my God, isn\u2019t that wonderful?\u2019\u201d she said. And then McGinnis remembered the fur coat in her closet she never wore because it was too heavy for […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1287,"featured_media":243999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Fur real! Millards Fur Service specializes in skins care","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}