Finally Fendi has a rival for the best furs of the year. Together with Roberto Cavalli, the two houses forever put to bed the notion of the let-out mink coat setting the standard for fur craftsmanship. Fendi's furs came roaring out in primitive, tufty woven fox, then made way for a nearly Erte-inspired combination of golden squirrel and chinchilla. One mink coat was worked so that its pelts curled up like petals of fur. At Cavalli, horizontal stripes of teal-dyed fox were set on a long, black leather corset coat. And forget the brouhaha over Cindy Crawford modeling fur at Cavalli (she was once a PeTA poster girl). The real news was the gorgeous horizontally knit stripes of cream, gray and brown fur worked with orange fabric into a coat or the same tones of fur knit with powder blue wool into a mini dress with matching scarf.

Dolce & Gabbana showed a set of chinchilla short coats, one in beige, one trimmed with lynx cat, and a sporty one in traditional black and white. Gucci applied strips of black mink onto chunky sweaters for its show's goth girls. Marni paired fur with wispy chiffon. Versus offered a technically difficult fur made into a textured brick pattern. Prada was the only house that stepped back to an earlier age of fur, showing in combo with nylon for rather conservative bombers, belted as hip-length jackets and even as narrow princess coats with little puffed shoulders and cuffs and slightly flared hems.

It was a great fur week in Milan.