This trend didn’t come from fashion in the strictest sense, which some might say makes it a bit backward. And yet it is used in some of the most prominent, fashionable garments of the year. Who hasn’t seen Fendi’s sweeping cape made of fox without noting that it doesn’t look like any fox cape seen before? Is it knit fox? Is it made of some new technique under development by the Saga Furs of Scandinavia think tank?

That’s exactly the idea, I suspect. Between the high demand for nontraditional furs (not your grandmother’s mink) by the younger set and fashion’s luxe bohemian obsession, it was inevitable that designers would turn to knit furs and different techniques to make richly textured garments that are a little mysterious and left-of-center but still offer the wearer the warmth and comfort of fur.

Paula Lishman, the original 1970s hippie fur designer, isn’t at all surprised. She’s been working almost exclusively with knit furs since she incorporated Paula Lishman International near her home in Blackstock, Ontario, Canada, back in 1979. Until about five years ago, she actually held a U.S. patent on the process used to weave her sheared beaver designs.

When Lishman first started, traditional furriers viewed the very idea as almost sacrilegious, because her technique involved slicing pelts into tiny strips and weaving them so they achieved an entirely different look from that intended by nature.

Lishman’s woven furs slowly gained popularity for their draping, slightly stretchy quality that made them ideal for sweaters and let the wearer feel the softness of fur next to her skin. Lishman knit furs sold primarily in North America, but Japanese women went crazy for them. This eventually prompted furriers in Hong Kong to come up with their own process of knitting fur -- weaving it onto a fabric mesh or net structure. When Lishman’s patent ended, nearly every North American designer dabbled in some kind of knit or woven fur.

The fashion crowd, however, was skeptical.

Enter Saga Furs of Scandinavia, the mink and fox pelt marketing organization based in Denmark that specializes in developing different fur-working techniques and spreading the word to designers. A few years ago, they encouraged New York City-based designers to work with knit mink and fox, with a variety of success. Saga regularly invites designers from all parts of the globe to visit their workshop, learn and often develop new ways of working with fur. It often also assists in the development of specific collections by pairing a designer with fur craftsmen who can help execute his or her vision in mink or fox.

This year fashion houses like Fendi, Givenchy, Gaultier and Roberto Cavalli have taken up the call of the unusual fur, often combining fur with other fabrics and using a variety of other techniques to create a melange of colors and textures that best express the creativity of the season. While these garments are not all strictly knitted or woven furs, the twisting and other techniques achieve the same goal, which is to make fur lightweight, soft, pliable and luxurious while not at all traditional. Sometimes designers can even create their own “new fabrics” by using the techniques.

“This is totally gratifying to watch,” says Lishman, who is not at all sad to have lost her market exclusivity. “I knew my factory in Blackstock could never fill the world demand for this type of fur. Now that high-end designers are working with furs in these different ways, it reinforces the validity of woven furs and shows that fur is a versatile fabric that can be worn by everyone. Now you can find a $100 knit fur scarf from China as well as the most expensive designer garment. Fur should be like any other product: for example, you can purchase a five dollar piece of jewelry or a five million dollar piece of jewelry, and people don’t often confuse the two. Why shouldn‘t there be that choice in furs?”

Lishman herself has expanded her use of fur techniques and fur types over the years, making washable, sheared beaver and silk knit furs for spring, combining different types of fur and incorporating full-pelt furs as trims or design elements.