Is there a safe way to "refresh" a mouton collar?

[dr.raul]

My just bought 1963 G-1 has a nice undamaged mouton collar, but it has that smell of old stuff and probably it has some grease and dust into it by use.
I was wondering if there is a way to "clean" it a bit without risk of damaging it or I can just put it outside in the air for a few day?
Do you think that some baking soda sprinkled on the collar could help?

 

[Skyhawk]

No I would not use baking soda. You can try airing it out but watch out for moths. They love to eat it.

You can wash it with shampoo, rinse and air dry. However, this may kink up the fur into tight curls like is seen on some originals. This happens naturally over time anyway so if your collar is already like that, it wont matter.

-Jay

 

[dr.raul]

Just added a pic of the collar to the first post

 

[dr.raul]

Just washed with water and shampoo, came out very well, thank you

 

[Chevalier]

One idea I tried with my synthetic collar G-1 was foaming detergent in warm water and just scooping off the foam with a clean cloth to clean the collar. It kept the collar from getting too wet or soapy, but my collar was not very dirty, either. It needed more of a “refresh” like the OP’s collar. It worked well, but the synthetic is likely more forgiving than real mouton.