Fur is at the pinnacle of fashion this season, and in more way than one. While it played a key role in the vast majority of fall '98/99 ready-to-wear collections, it also took its rightful place in the most luxurious of all fashion, the Paris haute couture shows.

There it melted into a palette of the finest fabrics, tailoring, beading, lace and, at some designer houses, a riot of color and texture. When blended with other elements with just as much innate value, designers -- along with the rest of the fashion world -- take fur for granted in haute couture. Its presence seems assumed, especially against the backdrop of recent seasons' penchant for luxury goods. This allows designers to treat fur with whimsy, using it to cuff a pair of pants, as a dress or embellished with beads for a grand collar. It was rarely seen as a simple coat, or in a grand sweep that cried "fur."

Even so, fur's inclusion in fashion's most inaccessible creations anchors it firmly in the elite. Though fur is available to a wider market today in the form of accessories or less expensive tibetan lamb collars on wool coats or sweaters, haute couture furs are a luxury unattainable by the crowd. They're grandly theatrical and spectacular.