(check out our exclusive video interviews next to the designer name)
to view video download a FREE video player.

With so many designers making fur collections and including fur in their clothing collections, there are as many visions for what makes fur fashionable as there are different ways to sew fabric. Every designer's mantra: fur is just another medium. For as many different talents (many of them designing their first fur collections) who wanted to make fresh, young statements about fur "not looking like your mother's coat," there were as many who went formal with some old-world starry night elegance thrown in. Yet most sent a double message: not only is fur this season's indulgent accessory of choice for knock-out glamour, it can equally be used as a chic accoutrement to casual lifestyles.

In this year of luxurious embellishments, fur is an integral, yet ubiquitous factor. This has caused trends in fur fashion to take a back seat to fur itself; fur is the trend. Fur no longer has to try so hard: it simply has to be in order to be popular. This was illustrated in a trend report by one print magazine, which oddly listed practically every shape of fur as this fall's news.

In that spirit, designers presented furs in all shapes and lengths, fearlessly adding more "furry" furs like fox, and more expensive furs like chinchilla and broadtail lamb; they utterly swamped us in sable. Numbers of fur-trimmed luxury fabric styles and shearling furs declined slightly. Casual anoraks and pea coats still coexisted with -- but bowed to -- the dramatic. Full-length became floor-sweeping, literally. A new, mid-calf length was instituted by a handful of designers, to go with fall's longer skirt lengths.

The long, easy wrap coat was the dominant shape. Little boleros and sexy fitted jackets also proliferated, most for evening. There was a downright profusion of accessories -- bags, stoles, shrugs -- created to hold their own, to make a modern statement about fur without necessarily matching a fur coat. Even pullover sweaters, skirt suits, ponchos and capes look less gimmicky and more natural with this season's presentations of ready-to-wear. Color was important, in sandy whites, deep amethyst, khaki green, merlot and multiple shades of blue.

JOSEPH ABBOUD exhibited a low-key way with fur. Shearlings and hide-out persian lambs were deconstructed and casual, as zippered jackets or flowing coats with small collars. Colors emphasized the casual statement, in either natural shades or in muted dyes of ink, dark slate, amethyst or sage. In contrast, three finale foxes were no shrinking violets: big but simple foxes, in knee- or ankle-length, all the more obvious in ivory or pearl color.

VICTOR ALFARO's message in his collection for Maximilian at Bloomingdale's seemed to be, Don't take fur too seriously. Of just nine pieces, four were rabbit and five were swakara lamb. Simple jackets buttoned at the neck only. Straight coats stretched to below the knee. A pullover poncho looked extremely collegiate. Colors were camel, sea blue, brown and red.

The first collection of BORGHESE furs by Italian luxury beauty house, Borghese Inc. focused on mink and Russian sable, supplemented with a full range of sheared beaver, shearling, rainwear, fur-trimmed cashmere, chinchilla, silk velvet and fox. Standouts included a white sculpted silk velvet robe with white mongolian lamb collar and cuffs, a little corseted yellow lapin jacket, some horizontal "wave" patterned minks, and a chic, narrow sheared beaver short coat in deep moss color with a slight groove effect.

In his first fur collection, DONALD DEAL exhibited a way with elegant fur, draping it in poet coats and double-face silk capes with tiered handkerchief hems. His theater coat in mink fell to the ankle in back, but was shorter in the front to close asymmetrically over by the left elbow, and opened diagonally in front to show the full leg of an evening gown. Done simply in Russian sable, the traditional cutaway offered a twist on this difficult fur -- a narrow silhouette -- without dating it. Deal cut his one-button long swakara princess coat without a collar for one of the most un-fussy, sexy looks ever in swakara.

OSCAR DE LA RENTA took a romantic turn this year. In a season which could be called conservative, he took chances that worked. He used antique patchwork quilt patterns on one side of a reversible port broadtail short coat, or implemented them in broadtail and mink patches trimmed with fox. Rose broadtail was a natural with beige chinchilla trim, especially when embroidered. Calfskin and shearling were casual counterparts to evening's silver fox bolero, a rose broadtail strapless dress and matching rose fox bolero, and a little black shearling jacket trimmed with plucked mink and covered with shimmery "flocked" velvet on the hide side.

LOUIS DELL'OLIO is known for his mastery of fit and craftsmanship, and relaxed styling in fur or fur-trimmed luxury fabrics like camel hair, alpaca boucle, cashmere or alpaca blended with mohair. His news came in the form of mood, through color and texture: camel herringbone alpaca with Russian lynx trim; gray herringbone alpaca with silver fox; wine alpaca short coat with dyed-to-match silver fox; green-dyed fitch with dyed- to-match finnraccoon; and brandy-dyed mink short coat with dyed- to-match finnraccoon trim.

JOHN GALLIANO put on a full-blown spectacle on June 2 at the Metropolitan Club. Furs were almost incidental in this extravaganza. Shapes included 1920s Erte-influenced cocoons, either in brocade silk with fur accents, in pale mauve mink with oversized fox collar, white ermine wrap with oversized chinchilla collar, black sheared mink with silver fox or a chinchilla cutaway. Small furs included voluminous mink jackets with flowing fox stoles (including tails) attached instead of mere collars, in pale mauve or aqua marine. Graphic black and white intarsia mink coats appeared to be patterned after playing cards. Fluffy white Russian lynx made a rare appearance here, both as a long coat and as accent to a training floral-printed fabric coat.

ERIC GASKINS always has a way of making wearable furs "without an expiration date," as he always says, and yet hitting most of the high points of the season. This year those included a wild, fitted little jeoffreoy cat bolero, a taupe plucked mink balmacaan, a silver fox "tire" (circle shrug wrapped around the shoulders), and a cashmere cape that highlighted specially worked chinchilla trim, which looked like inverted "V" shaped stonework.

A capsule collection of seven pieces by JEAN PAUL GAULTIER was a fun, last-minute addition to the Maximilian at Bloomingdale's show, even if the unstructured, hide-out minks in kimono shapes weren't exactly new inventions. Gaultier cited his influences "as his sensitivity to nomads, the inhabitants of Mongolia as well as globetrotters and punks."

MICHAEL KORS mixed interesting furs together in easy shapes for timeless wearability. The enveloping clutch coat was a dominant silhouette, interpreted in a number of different furs and fabrics. Standout fur combinations included broadtail with black fox, pale sable on calfskin, fisher on silk faille, and gray persian lamb with silver fox. Kors was a proponent of the new, mid-calf 44-inch length, done in wild-type mink with a cowl collar.

KARL LAGERFELD's collection for Maximilian at Bloomingdale's had a stronger point of view than in recent years, with handkerchief hems, asymmetric collars and closures, and frosted mongolian lamb. Short-haired curly lamb, called South American lamb, was also frosted in shades of pewter, platinum and sky, and then sometimes trimmed with matching frosted mongolian lamb. Shimmer suede coats offered sleek drape and movement and received a 1920s twist with an asymmetrical drop chinchilla collar. Instead of fox, Lagerfeld used lynx to make a major big-coat statement.

It takes vision -- and courage -- to send a model down the runway during a fur show when the only fur she's wearing (over cashmere slacks and a sleeveless shell) is a bordeaux sable tuxedo belt or raisin fox bracelets. But that's exactly what GUILLAUME POUPART (too see video click here 28.8K 56K) did. He also sent down a huge chinchilla coat on a model wearing a black skullcap, a slouchy white shirt over black slacks and black shoes that were only once removed from sneakers. His smokey topaz American Ultra mink parka was narrow but sporty. Several coats got matching fur bags, and a mid- calf-length bordeaux broadtail finale coat was draped with a matching, dyed sable scarf.

Simple shapes loaded with embellishments were ZANDRA RHODES's (to see video click here 28.8K 56K) message this year. Capes and shawls fared the best with this treatment. A whispy black devore velvet cape was trimmed with black Majestic Select fox. A green devore velvet cape was casually draped with a green-dyed Majestic Supreme fox collar. A burgundy fox cape and matching handmuff received patches of elaborately beaded embroidery, used on the cape as a closure, and a little white fox capelet got a row of beaded inserts between two tiers of fox.

SONIA RYKIEL's show for Maximilian at Bloomingdale's was young and fresh. Leopard-print sheared rabbit was shown with its black leather side out, in either a walking coat or a duffel coat. Two fox scarves were actually shown vintage-style, as head-to-tail flings with jeweled eyes. Diamond grooving provided texture on a rabbit vest with fox collar, a plum rabbit collarless jacket and a black rabbit double-breasted blazer. Black taffeta lent an urban edge in a safari vest or a duffel storm coat, both with sheared rabbit linings.

ZANG TOI (to see video click here 28.8K 56K) seems to be a designer of glamorous extremes, and he did not disappoint in his first fur collection. A long coat wasn't just ankle length, it wa a diva coat sweeping the floor at 63 inches. A three-quarter coat wasn't just short, it was barely there, with a one-button closure that nipped the waist and didn't cover much. But that's what this season is about. He was liberal with fox trims, and he lovingly used chinchilla, mink, sable and broadtail. Colors were mostly natural, with the exception of his signature French blue, which he used in quilted mink in four shapes that summed up the collection: a hooded floor-length coat with silver fox trim, a tiny, cropped ski jacket, a vest reversible to black sheared mink and a stole with silver fox trim.

VALENTINO started his show with something of a surprise -- a bold, ankle-length, golden island fox wrap coat. This was full-speed-ahead fur, in straight or wrap shapes but dramatic red, white or black. A red broadtail coat was punched up even further with a red fox collar. Black sheared mink coats -- one with a fox collar -- received beaded embroidery in spots as a form of embellished trim. As relief for the drama, mink also came in mauve, celadon and petrol (a grayish blue).

ZUKI (to see video click here 28.8K 56K) presented one of his most well-rounded collections ever. It was a delight to see Zuki just as adept at fur-trimmed angora, Canada Majestic mink, chinchilla, broadtail lamb and sable as he is at his signature multi-colored patterns created through cutting and piecing together differently dyed furs, a process called intarsia. Actually, his intarsia set comprised less than 20 percent of his collection, but it was way over the top in designs like "Baroque," "English Garden," "Fleur de Mer" and "Roccoco," which were so thick with detail -- sometimes done within his new marble pattern -- that they would seem difficult to paint, let alone carve out of sheared beaver.