At least ten of the collections carried real furs, and these didn't include the additional sea of them that worked with shearling furs or wannabe (but we're afraid of the backlash) furs: Amaya Arzuaga, Bella Freud, Lainey Keogh, Ben de Lisi, Marcus Lupfur, Alexander McQueen, Dai Rees, John Rocha, Amanda Wakeley and Tristan Webber.

In case you don't recognize a majority of those names, more than a few were in their first or second year of presenting their own labels. And considering what the London collections are to the rest of the fashion world, pretty soon these sometimes extremely artistic (read eccentric and often unwearable) creations will serve as inspiration for their more market-driven brethren.

Furs fit in perfectly with several of the primary trends also seen in New York. The bottom line: as we approached the millennium a few years ago, fashion became techno; now that it's upon us, fashion is more nostalgic, romantic and still individual. Just look at the blanket-inspired outerwear in capes and wraps, all perfectly designed to fend off the unknown of the Y2K. You don't do cocooning any better than these.

Fabrics were designed to be comfy in the ultra-textural extremes of mohair, boiled wool, felt, double-faced cashmeres, plus hand-manipulated materials. In some cases, mink casually blended against thicker, fluffier textiles.

Luxury wasn't gone, but it was definitely redirected. Glamour-furs were more modest, as most designers preferred their mink sheared and understated in small doses. Others, however, endorsed beading, embroidery, hand-painting and even feather embellishments, which were anything but unassuming.

Skirts were still long -- ranging from the knee to the floor. But most directional was the mid-calf A-line. As for color, gray was still a runway basic, while winter white dazzled and green made a big play.

Trendy fur-wearers have their shopping lists ready: fuzzy leg-warmers; light-as-a-feather (unlined) cropped pullovers with roomy sleeves; flat-sheared aprons for that bare-backed, sensual front feeling (may I suggest fur on the inside?); another fur handbag, especially a flat messenger bag for the hip; and of course, any skinny coat or sweater with a spikey collar.

Of these, the leg-warmers turned up in the audience -- as faux, of course. London fashionistas were drenched in wannabe fox, chinchilla and persian lamb, while they seemed blithely ignorant in real shearling or mongolian lamb. Maybe they justified it to the hooligans by offering to take pelts off the lamb from their tormenters' dinner plates. This, take-our- leftovers theory seemed to emphasize London's preoccupation with animal rights as a class war. But that's another story.

AMAYA ARZUAGA kicked off London Fashion Week by offering the audience her own brand of heat: spicy and hypnotic flamenco artist Sara Baras raised the temperature in the room. It was a good thing, because Arzuaga's collection seemed determined to leave women half-dressed to face the winter chill. Severe and sexy, reflecting the designer's Spanish roots, furs were backless, shivery with just a tie at the waist to hold the front in place. Arzuaga used rabbit for her two "gilets," or aprons, both covering the neck but one long and flapping in front of the knees and one short, almost a halter top.

Presenting only his second fall collection since graduating Central Saint Martins in 1997, TRISTAN WEBBER demonstrated a mastery of leather work in what most fashion watchers said was amore mature, salable presentation than past. Standouts were moody but almost couture-level fitted leather shirts and jackets, using sliced-and-diced pieces of burgundy and black leather pieced together to emphasize intricate construction. Webber used low-key sheared Saga mink on a sleek vest.

Saga Furs of Scandinavia sponsored furs for AMANDAWAKELEY's presentation of sleek, sophisticated separates. Two pullover sweaters brought last year's tunic trend in fur a step forward, cropping them shorter -- almost to the waist -- and making them lighter in weight and more meltingly drapable than any bulky wool. Wakeley used black mink, worked horizontally, for one, and an unnamed creamy colored fur for the other, both oversized with batwing sleeves and bateau neckline, shown off one shoulder while falling diagonally across the body. Lustrous black Saga mink also turned up as a little, hip-length jacket with slight shape at the waist.

ANDREW GROVES, known for outrageous runway antics, was said to have made a point of bringing his clothing more into the real world this year. While they were incredibly beautiful, and shapes were certainly accessible, beyond dressing the occasional Oscar celebrant, the exquisite Elizabethan, corseted and laced dresses would probably leave most women feeling all dressed up with no place to go except a Cinderella (or movie) fantasy. Shearling fur fit in the rather dandified men's coats as curly collars on leather coats, which also had hand-painted floral accents.

BEN de LISI's American roots were evident in his wearable, sportswear-influenced collection of separates. Easy, elegant shapes were interpreted in luxury fabrics and colors like slate blue, forest green, aqua, black, chocolate and charcoal. He incorporated Saga fur into more ensembles than any other designer during London Fashion Week, using aqua sheared mink as the front of a tank top twinned with cashmere for the back, and topping just about everything with mink collars, including sweaters, a strapless satin dress, and even a scoop-necked knit dress with hood falling down the back.

In his very first women's wear line, DAI REES, better known for his dramatic millinery, mined his Welsh roots for inspiration. He used fabrics and yarns, from Scotland and wales, plus leather and unspun wool in traditional tartans, tweeds and herringbones, all to promote British craftsmanship and materials. Using a light touch, Rees incorporated possum fur as decoration, inserting it in pleats on a cashmere knitted skirt, in little striping down a cashmere bodice or as a snood on a brown tweed skirt.

Design team CLEMENTS RIBEIRO used furs as part of their exotic mix of British bohemia and sailor suiting, blending sparkling cranberry, copper and gold with crisp black, white, navy and cool heather. They applied some sort of hair product to fox collars, making them spikey and sharp on a long fitted coat, a hip-length sweater and a short jacket. A very debutante black fox handmuff looked modern worn with a simple sweater and skirt.

BELLA FREUD -- yes, great-granddaughter of THAT Freud -- presented her whimsical, bohemian melange of color and sex in a special short film directed by John Malkovich and shown in a London art gallery. It's a witty short story of an Asian man who, afraid of impending tidal waves, wears rubber underwear that inflate into a circular life preserver. His commute on the underground turns into a predictable adventure when he finds himself on a train car with models, who titillate him with fishnet stockings, supershort skirts or, mysteriously, just panties and stockings with a top, flashing pink lipstick, pink dress, bead-fringed berets and other sex-bomb accoutrement interspersed between more subdued, knee-length, gray tartan suits or skirts. Long on image, the movie format made it a bit tricky to pick out the Saga furs, but I think I found a multi- color striped scarf and a dark mink vest.