Nothing is as dramatically beautiful and fashionable than fox, whether as a simple, face-framing collar, a Marilyn Monroe boa, or a coat that sweeps you up in its lush glamour. Fox fashions have changed so utterly and completely over the past 15 years, however, that it's no surprise most people are confused, and about more than color. For one thing, you don't see as many full-fox garments for sale today. With the exception of men's coats, I can't remember the last time I saw a full-length fox coat on a runway. Brightly dyed fox chubby jackets made a comeback in 1997 and have been popular -- especially among the ghetto fabulous crowd -- ever since. Movie-star glamorous fox stoles and scarves have been at the height of fashion for the past few years and will probably remain a staple for a while, but always in either silver fox, white fox or dyed black or some kind of screaming hue. Cutting-edge fox fashion now means more earth tones, more rugged, rough-and-tumble or gypsy style.

It's an entirely different look from the blanket of fox jackets that draped across the U.S. in the 1980s. Back then, the most expensive and fashionable foxes were giant coats or jackets with enveloping hoods made from exotic and rare natural fox colors like golden island shadow or fawn light or the dyed crystal fox. They easily cost in the ballpark of $45,000. At the opposite end of the market, every other store at the mall was selling sausage-small, heavily leather-stripped, natural blue fox jackets for $300 that sometimes shed half their hair in the first month of wearing. Interestingly, both types of garments now come up for sale at prices between $100 and $600 used. Buyer beware. Or at least know what you're looking at.

But just what do you need to know?

Buying fox is not nearly as basic as buying mink; conversely, it is a lot less complicated. When asking the fox experts, "What should people look for in quality when buying fox," they all said the following:

Touch is as important as sight. The lushest, fullest, silkiest foxes are the best quality. They should be fluffy, have a deep pile, and have consistent fur coverage and a luster. No dull, ratty pelts allowed.

That said, different fox colors have different character and different consistency of fur coverage. Blue fox, blue shadow fox and white fox, which are most commonly found new in dyed colors, are very full skins with thick underfur and fewer guard hairs. This gives them a fatter, more pillowy look than other fox types. Therefore, today they are most often used for trims, as collars and cuffs.

Silver fox, other naturally gold-shaded foxes and cross foxes have less underfur and more guard hairs that are less consistently distributed across the natural pelt of the animal. Depending how a furrier works these pelts, they can often produce varieties of color or fur length in a garment that give it a unique character. These aren't of inferior quality compared to the blue fox types, just different. Some people prefer these types for garments, since they are somewhat flatter and add less bulk to the figure.

Even the best quality fox will shed some but not much.

If you're already a fur fan, you know that retailers are required by law to put a hang tag on their garments listing the country of origin of the pelts and the country of origin of manufacturing. But just what does that mean to fox garments?

Not as much as you'd think. First, there is more than an 80 percent chance that you're buying fox pelts farmed in Scandinavia. According to Saga Furs of Scandinavia, which is responsible for marketing these pelts, approximately 82 percent of the fox sold at auction for world-wide consumption comes from Finland, Norway, Denmark or Sweden. That doesn't count the foxes raised in Russia and Poland, because almost 100 percent of those pelts are consumed within their own countries, so you're not likely to ever run into them. Of the remaining 18 percent on the world market, much are raised in North America.

Blue fox are by far the most common color/type of fox available today, probably in the range of 90 percent of pelts sold at auction. They are almost exclusively raised in Scandinavian countries, dyed and used for fur trims. If you're buying a fox-trimmed jacket or coat or sweater, you're almost certain to be buying a dyed blue fox from Scandinavia.

Silver fox are the most common fox raised in North America but also come from Scandinavia. Scandinavian pelts tend to be larger and fluffier for use in trimmings, while those from North America have been bred for a shorter nap with dense underwool for use in garments, according to the North American Fur Association. If you're buying a silver fox jacket or coat, the pelts are either from North America or Scandinavia. Silver fox is sometimes dyed to create unique color combinations. Usually the black tips show along with the dyed color.

As for the manufacturing country of origin, this is almost a nonissue. Almost all fox garments are made in China these days. Fur trims occasionally are still made in the U.S. and Europe, but then usually for pricey designer goods.

When it comes to buying fox, labels do really mean something. According to one fox expert, it is easy to take a poor quality fox and make it look better in the dressing and dyeing process. Only the best quality Scandinavian pelts receive the label Saga Royal. Only the best quality North American pelts (about 30 percent) receive the label NAFA Gold.

Both Saga's and NAFA's other labels still provide you with quality assurance.

Keep in mind, however, that the Saga and NAFA labels are NOT designer labels. They have nothing to do with the manufacture or design of the garment. They are labels that vouch for the quality of the pelts.

Still, look beyond the label and go back to the beginning. Do your own test using your own preferences of touch and appearance. Does it feel good? Does it look good? Each fox has its own character. Do your comparison shopping, and make sure you're finding the best quality you can to fit in your budget.

There are more natural colors of farm-raised fox than you could possibly remember when shopping -- some 50 in total. According to Saga, however, there are only about a dozen sold in any quantity. You could even narrow it down further, with the most common fox colors being blue, blue frost, silver, and shadow blue fox. The redder shades (Saga gold or golden island fox, or wild red fox) are becoming more popular in fashion but as yet are not very widely available.

Blue fox: back in the 1980s, blue fox was most commonly sold in its natural color, which is white with some grayish/silvery tips. Today, blue fox is always dyed. Natural blue fox is most often found only on the Used Fur market. The clearer, whiter shades with a smattering of gray or silvery tips are the best quality. Since it is such a light, color, however, blue fox often yellows over time.

Silver fox: this is a two-tone fur with shades of silvery white, black and gray. The better qualities have more contrast between the white and black shadings with no yellow or cream shadings. Some furriers say the darker the better and the bluer tint, the better.

Blue shadow fox: these are almost white with the faintest tint of a beige stripe and are most often dyed.

Blue frost fox: this is almost a solid gray fox mixed with black, darker in overall aspect than silver fox.

White fox: these are not available in large quantities but sometimes preferred by manufacturers for their ability to be dyed especially pure, pale fashion colors like pink, baby blue and powdery lavender.

Golden island fox: this is another fox not commonly available but popularized in the 1980s for its distinctive, unusual combination of red and cream shadings with dark brown striping. Its cousin, the golden island shadow fox also contains a combination of those shadings but is overall lighter in appearance with creamy, winter white tones.

Approximately one percent of fox pelts sold internationally at auction are not raised on farms. Though they are populous species in North America and trapped here, North American consumers rarely can find these in stores. They bear the label NAFA Northern and come in a small variety of colors: red, American gray, arctic white fox, pearl, Bollert beige, kit fox, and a very limited amount of natural silver fox.

The differences between wild and farmed fox is greater than color, though. As a general rule, wild fox are smaller than farmed fox, because they are subject to a less stable environment with less consistent access to food and water. Their pelts also have more character, which means they can be less consistent in their fur coverage and coloring. Wild furs tend not to lend themselves well to fashions that require even color and fur length but instead are favored in more rugged styles.

Wild fox pelts tend to cost on average half of what farmed fox pelts cost. This does not always translate into the cost of the garment, though. Since most wild fox pelts are smaller, they require the use of more pelts to create the same size garment.

In the past two years, fox prices have been at a high point. Sadly for the consumer, fox pelt prices are extremely volatile, crashing or soaring from season to season due to the whims of fashion. One fox collar strategically placed on the garment of a key designer look can launch knockoffs around the world and set the demand for fox pelts climbing. Since the supply of fox pelts varies almost insignificantly year to year, if manufacturers in a country like Russia, for instance, decide that consumers want fox, they can create a huge, sudden demand. Pelts go to the highest bidder, and pelt prices can double in a year's time.

There was a time when rare and exotic shades of fox pelts could command much higher prices than the most common blue fox. That's not necessarily the case today. Most often the largest pelt demands the highest dollar, given a somewhat consistent quality. Blue fox pelts in the largest size are sold at auction for at least 50 percent more on average than pelts two sizes smaller. Larger pelts are usually heavier and therefore used for trims, leaving the price for fox garments to fluctuate according to factors like quality and fashion.

Dyeing any pelt automatically adds $15 to $30 to its value. Today, according to Dean Brenner of Delta Trading, New York City, there is even a process through which a fox pelt can be made reversible to its own leather, the way mink has been done for the past few years. This is even more expensive than dyeing and can add $60 to the cost of a pelt. Multiply that by the number of pelts required per garment (there is no average), and you have a sizeable increase in price.

These days, respectable quality fox jackets retail starting at around $3,000. Prices climb quickly for those with designer labels and pelt labels.

Add a fox trim to any garment, and the value added is approximately $300 retail, on average. This can vary greatly according to the size of the trim and if any new technique is used in making it.

Since fox fur is not exactly a low-key form of style, it has always been in the forefront of any fashion that is glamorous, dramatic and even avant garde. Since fur became fashionable again in the late 1990s, designers have been looking for new and different ways to use fox as a fabric, and Saga Furs of Scandinavia has been accommodating and inspiring them with a Denmark-based Design Center/think tank. There Saga has, in partnership with designers, developed new methods of cutting and sewing fox pelts that are as versatile as twisting different colors together into boas to slicing tiny strips of fox and applying them to fabric as embellishment. Some techniques are designed to make fox less bulky and lighter weight to trim fabrics as wispy as chiffon, while others, like knitted fox, make it poufier and spikier. Some even back fox with velcro, so fox trims can be added and removed easily to garments like jeans and even t-shirts.

Gus Goodman Inc. is a New York City manufacturer that has been making fur trims for designers like Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta and Pauline Triger for generations and now has its own label, Buonuomo by David Goodman. The company is a rare example of one that still makes fox trims for the most well-known designers and yet is moving forward on its own with the latest fox-working techniques.

"Designers today usually want fox trims dyed to match the rich, deep colors of their couture fabrics," says David Goodman. "Black is still the most popular color, which is also dyed, but the ability to dye a fox exactly the right shade of aubergine or forest green or other fabric color is challenging and still very important. For the Buonuomo line, we're constantly experimenting with Saga's fox-working techniques and even developing some new ones of our own. This year's most important and unusual one is the mosaic fox, which allows us to use different colors of fox and sew them together in tiny squares to create a mosaic look that exactly matches the pattern of a fabric."