But long-time fur fans sometimes find the spectacle of haute couture shows redundant in their use of fur. After all, there are ready-to-wear collections and fur collections annually offering furs not so different from some of those seen on the haute couture catwalks. Certainly haute couture has been called an irrelevant overblown fashion indulgence for a handful of customers. Sound familiar? That's what a lot of people -- maybe the jealous types -- say about fur fashion.

Actually, fur and haute couture have always had much in common, both because they represent the epitome of precious materials but also because, often furs are meticulously made to order. Many traditional fur manufacturers, in fact, consider themselves couturiers, because they customize a fur garment so specifically to its wearer through a laborious process of choosing patterns, pelts, colors and finishing details, cutting canvases and then scheduling fittings as the production of the garment progresses. Much of the craft of making a fur garment also is done by hand.

That's why, when fur becomes part of a designer's extravagant haute couture vision, which also encompasses fine jewels, beading and intricate design, it is just one in the designer's palette of materials. Together they produce out-of- this-world fashions, if not outright works of art. This year's examples were a fox ball skirt at Jean-Paul Gaultier, brilliant color from Lacroix, Lapidus and Dior, and jeweled embellishment from Ungaro, Hanae Mori and Yudashkin.