Then he found something else to make him wonder. Among the furs on the dais was a gorgeous spotted skin, whose predominant hue was golden. It was not a clever copy, but the skin of an actual beast. And that beast, Conan knew, had been extinct for at least a thousand years; it was the great golden leopard which figures so prominently in Hyborian legendry, and which the ancient artists delighted to portray in pigments and marble.> - The Devil in Iron
Pelts, skinned from beasts, with warm or tough or luxuriant fur, are among the earliest materials man has turned to clothing. To wear the skins of creatures the gods left less exposed to the elements - to take on their strength.
