Thank God for Italians! The fashion shows really come to life in Milan and the Fall 2003 collections here didn’t disappoint. There were more innovative furs in Milan this season than London and New York combined.

Every big designer did their own very specific take on fur. Miuccia Prada used minimal but deluxe furs and skins- usually to accentuate an elegant wool suit or as a wrap angled at the neck. Dolce and Gabbana made one short white and very hip chinchilla coat. Anna Molinari did her usual vintage hippie take with short fur coats as well.

Gucci showed extraordinary, dramatic upstanding fur collars on coats with voluminous sleeves. These were beautiful albeit unusual and even slightly Elizabethan - definitely not something you’ve seen before. Oppositely, Versace’s coats were very wearable - especially if you want to look like a sophisticated rock chick. She offset a gorgeous coat with a wild Western fringe and also showed huge, mad dyed furs-really wild and fun coats that would give you the warmth of a huge fur coat but without that stodgy feeling you can have wearing one. Otherwise, Versace’s oversize squashy ostrich bag was the most coveted bag already according to several fashion editors.

But Fendi, as usual, stole the show as far as the sheer amount and range of fur coats and accessories shown. Designer Karl Lagerfeld made short tiny fitted jackets, in leather with collars and cuffs made of sheared weasel. Other showstopping coats were done in reflective metallics - particularly one ribbed silver leather with tufts of white fox sticking through. He showed coats in gray Persian lamb and others with curly cascades of Mongolian lamb spilling again, out of the cloth. Lastly, there was an amazing inside-out fur with a vast drooping collar that was sewn from a single circular patchwork. But I have to say, my favorite of the whole Fendi collection was the Fendi knee-high fur boots. I guarantee every apres skier worth her weight in Aspen will have a pair of these next winter!