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"Reader Julissa writes, &amp;quot;A great aunt recently passed away and left me a bunch of vintage clothes, including a full length mink coat from the 1980s. I don&amp;#x27;t have any ethical qualms about wearing fur--I think of it as a recycled hand-me-down--but it does look a little old-fashioned. Can I wear it with the big poufy sleeves etc. or will it just look too dated?&amp;quot; Wherever you stand on the Great Fur Debate, there&amp;#x27;s no denying it&amp;#x27;s been a big trend this winter and will continue, as we saw on the New York Fashion Week runways, into fall 2010 in a big way. If you feel comfortable wearing the real deal, then there&amp;#x27;s no reason this old coat can&amp;#x27;t be salvaged (and even better, chic-ified!). Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;amp;#8217;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! If those 80s-style sleeves are just too much for you to handle, I say turn your coat into a vest! Fur vests have been big news for a while now, and I guarantee they&amp;#x27;ll stay hot next winter. I&amp;#x27;d suggest finding a great local furrier from a site like Citysearch or a recommendation from a tailor, dressmaker, or someone else who&amp;#x27;s in the know about fashion in your hometown. It may be on the expensive side, but they&amp;#x27;ll do a great professional job of removing the sleeves and finishing the edges so your new vest looks like it was made that way. Of course, if you&amp;#x27;re as adventurous (and impatient!) as my friend Alia, you can go the DIY route with some garden shears (seriously, she took a pair of &amp;#x27;em to this old Oscar de la Renta fur coat, and this is what she ended up with): You can also ask your furrier to cut the coat down to look more modern--chances are, you&amp;#x27;ll get a lot more use out of a short mink jacket than you would a full-length coat (unless, of course, your dance card is full and you&amp;#x27;re at the opera every night, in which case...how fabulous you are!). They can hack off a foot or two from the bottom of the coat and turn that excess piece into a great little cape or a hat and muff for you to accessorize with. And if all of that seems like too much work, I&amp;#x27;d suggest finding a high-end consignment store, selling the coat, and cashing in with a brand new pair of awesome designer shoes. It won&amp;#x27;t fetch as much as its original value, but it&amp;#x27;s still found money, right? I hope that helps, Julissa! And remember, ladies...I&amp;#x27;m here to solve your style problems! Leave your query in the comments section below or upload it to the STF contact form, and we&amp;#x27;ll have you looking chic in no time! More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering or logging in to Glamour.com! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage Follow Slaves to Fashion on Twitter! Photo: Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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