A cylindrical tube of fur or fabric, open at both ends, into which the hands are inserted from opposite sides for warmth—a garment that is not worn on the body but carried by it, an accessory that reverses the conventional relationship between wearer and worn.
The muff entered European fashion in the sixteenth century and reached its peak of popularity in the nineteenth, when it was an essential accessory for women’s winter wear. Muffs were made of the finest furs—sable, mink, ermine—or of quilted silk and velvet, and were often large enough to hold a handkerchief, a bottle of smelling salts, or a small purse.
The muff had the advantage of keeping the hands warm without restricting the fingers—the hands were simply inserted into the muff’s interior, where they could move freely while remaining insulated. This made the muff a supremely practical accessory, but its size and prominence also made it a vehicle for display. A large fur muff was a statement of wealth and status, worn at the center of the body where it could not be missed.
The muff declined in the twentieth century as the automobile and the heated building made heavy winter accessories less necessary. It survives today as a component of high-fashion runway collections, where designers periodically rediscover its sculptural potential. A muff is a garment that the body holds rather than wears, an object that occupies the space between the physical self and the world, a pocket in its most expanded form.
