“It’s a whole new world,” is the refrain from the fashion industry, and apparently it’s a world of style that designers have yet to pin down. Do consumers want familiar luxury or funereal black? Two things designers do seem to agree on are these: they want to offer comfort to their customers, and they want to give them a reason to go out and buy. After all, these days that’s a patriotic mandate. An initial glance at the condensation of the New York fall 2002 ready-to-wear collections, shown Feb. 8-15 during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in smaller venues with smaller budgets, might have given any flag-waving American a reason to think the U.S. fashion industry was caving in to terrorism and a challenging economy. The number of tents in Bryant Park was slashed in half; top designers were making their presentations in their limited-sized showrooms, and -- gasp -- Sean Combs finally abandoned the ghetto-fabulous look that made him famous. Fewer editors on the scene trudged along, more annoyed than usual at the 45-minute-late starts and the overcrowded venues that made it more difficult than usual to see the runway.

If there was ever a year for designers to stop using fur, this was it.

But it didn’t happen. All of New York's most famous designers -- Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Oscar de la Renta and Michael Kors used fur or shearling fur. In total, some 30 talents featured fur or shearling fur: David Goodman, Sean John, Mark Montano, Private by Freddie Rojas, Catherine Malandrino, Manuel Fernandez, Cynthia Steffe, Carolina Herrera, Chaiken, Bill Blass, Douglas Hannant, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Nicole Miller, Christina Perrin, Luca Luca, Narciso Rodriguez, Halston, Michael Kors, Oscar de la Renta, Peter Som, Zang Toi, Anna Sui, Bob Mackie, Chado Ralph Rucci, David Rodriguez, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren and Jeremy Scott.

But don’t confuse most of the fur on the runway with the overheated, flashy kind we’ve become used to the past few years. While showmen like Bob Mackie and Zang Toi issued their dramatic viewpoints as usual, and Oscar de la Renta was just as lush and elegant as ever, there weren’t many full-length, big fur coats to be found. Colors were toned down to black and neutrals. Shapes were easy, even practical.

The looks from Ralph, Calvin and Donna were all fairly minimalist and black, but Klein‘s were longhaired and fluffy. Karan presented at least six looks including fox, flat curly lamb and calfskin. Her short calfskin vest was edgy, while a long curly lamb coat with ribbed knit sleeves was the epitome of sleek chic.

Kors and de la Renta continued with their signature looks and catered to their customers without becoming too conservative. Kors used more fur than ever in a tribute to ski glamour that included men’s versions of women’s coyote legwarmers shown over jeans, big coyote vests and short coats. The highlight was a long, white mink shown with its camel-colored hide out with white mink Western-style seaming, whose casual, “think nothing of it” attitude belied the technology and craftsmanship that surely went into making such coat. Oscar de la Renta used Moroccan-inspired color and more fur than he did a year ago, including fluffy fox bubble hats with every other look and downright dreamy silk embroidered tapestry coats trimmed with Russian sable.

Marc Jacobs used a smattering of fur in his secondary line, Marc by Marc Jacobs, which included a young, vintage-inspired rabbit jacket.

David Goodman presented the ultimate fur and cashmere collection with gentle, classic twinsets and robes dotted with younger ones like flare-legged knit cashmere leggings and an inspiring display of fur craftsmanship. He matched animal-patterned cashmere with the same look in fur trim, but with intricately sewn fur, not stenciled. Goodman’s new, “erminesque” mink imitated mink tails as a flashy trim on a black cashmere cape worn by new R&B recording sensation Angie Stone, as she sang an introduction to the show.

While New York’s Fall 2002 Fashion Week started out with a few bad omens for lovers of luxury furs, it ended up establishing the fact that fur has truly become just another fabric through which designers interpret their individual visions for the season. For more collections, see Fall Furs from New York Part II in two weeks.