If you're wondering what mood you'll want to get in for next winter, it's this: outside and wrapped up in fur. The New York collections got off to the most extravagant start of any in recent history. Fur dominated the catwalk. Starting with Carolina Herrera's colorful and refined take on the old school luxury of Europe's grand ski resorts. Her cashmeres, alpacas, great big knit sweaters and leather coats were embellished with mink, ermine, and fox.

This is not fashion for VAIL! At night, Herrera's glam après ski look included a gold fox fur stole around the neck of a jade-green silk dress. It's a look that ought to guarantee at least one round of Schnapps from the neighboring table of admirers in Gstaad!

The move towards luxury sport-wear continued at Jeffrey Chow whose classic tailoring and traditional fabrics were paired with lovely fur jackets and capes. So charming and playful you might be inspired to go ice-skating in them!

Marc by Marc Jacobs' secondary line also focused on purposeful outdoor accessories. Our favorite was the knitted mink scarf in a spun-sugar color. Just yummy. But there were plush, useful fabrics everywhere. Narcisso Rodriguez even made the boring suit decadent by adding fluffy fur and ruffles as accents. Still his cozy shrugs with poufs of black shearling stole the show. The fur shrug is really coming out next season and Vera Wang showed chunky fur shrugs with slim skirts and trousers.

And speaking of classics - Oscar De la Renta has always loved fur trim. This season, sable, shearling, mink, and lamb turned up in both the expected and unexpected places - on collars, cuffs, vests, coats and even the edge of a skirt.

One of the indy-favorites of the hard-core fashionista is Proenza Schouler. Intense, sexy clothes with plenty of feathers, fur, lame and sparkle. The mink sequin coat cinched with a jeweled belt was truly a showstopper. Hard to top? Definitely. Still, West Coast-based designer, Monique Lhuillier's fox-trimmed embroidered overcoat is likely to be a contender for the red carpet at the Oscars as her dresses often are. Stay tuned!