NEW YORK Fall/Winter 2006-07

New York runway report

Fur has been a growing trend in recent years and the 2006 New York Fashion Week takes it all one step further.

No fewer than 30 designers included Saga Furs in their fall collections – from fashion veterans, Oscar de la Renta and Caroline Herrera, to the young up-and-coming prodigies. More than ever, these future fashion stars firmly established themselves with their individual expressions.

While the designers’ take on fur was generally sober though elegant--in natural colours and often sheered textures--their collections received rave reviews:

“Gorgeous,” was stated about Ruffian’s muted colours and elegant clothes which included a hooded parka with matching fox trim, fox-trimmed bubble dresses and a sumptuous black coat with dramatic finnraccoon collar.

“Best collection ever,” was the verdict on Tuleh’s classic, feminine collection, highlighted by an elegant white mink cape with an appliqué mink flower, and a long, glamorous grey mink coat with detachable beige mink collar that subtly broke colour conventions.

“Young and hip,” was the call on veteran designer Caroline Herrera’s collection, which opened up with a fox-trimmed coat and went on with numerous fox-trimmed sleeves and whimsical sheared-mink sleeves. To underscore the theme, the designer took her final bow wearing a brown sheared-mink vest – one of the coming season’s must-haves.

As a general rule fur functioned as an integral part of the collections, both colour- and material wise.

This was evident in Marc Jacob’s collection where a long black coat turned out to be half flannel, half mink, while a Derek Lam salt-and-pepper tweed coat had matching silver fox sleeves.

Whereas Marc Jacobs voluminous journey back to the ‘80s included snuggle-up teddy coats of sheared mink topped with knitwear-like fur hats, several of his cohorts were set in a time zone of the late ‘50s and Hollywood elegance of the ‘30s.

The latter was manifest by Badgley Mischka’s short, Arctic marble-blue fox jacket, which underlined the fall season’s new glamour that’s bound for the red carpet.

Vera Wang , who has made a name for herself in wedding gowns and among Hollywood stars, made some fashion points by using fur. Her short-sleeved vests, jackets and coats in brown mink would fit perfectly in a modern day Hitchcock film.

The eternal fashion star Oscar de la Renta showed no signs of waning as he catered to his glamorous front-rowers. The faultless collection flaunted nonchalant sable trims, lavish fox stoles and sheared-mink turtlenecks – the fall season’s most understated luxury item. Tailored jackets and coats were trimmed with mink, fox or had sheared-mink linings. Then, tongue-in-cheek, amidst the natural colours and matching combinations, came a sheared-mink coat and mink trims disguised as leopard skin—features not for the fur-faint of heart.

Venexiana bucked the trend for natural colours and played with fur in a youthful way with their brightly-coloured fur coats and trims.

Apart from the stoles and capes, trims and detached fur collars, fur trends included mink shawls, casually slung around the shoulders.

Michael Kors ’ trotted out shawls tossed about the shoulders, and the designer conjured up a distinct centrepiece with his gabardine trench coat featuring double silver fox trim at the sleeves.

Fur trim was also de rigeur in the design duo Proenza Schouler’s much-coveted collection. Peter Som went a step further when he opened his show with a black mink coat featuring an exquisite lasered-in pattern that could easily be mistaken for an appliqué. The sleeves and hemline were trimmed with lush, thick mink.

A similar idea sparked Zac Posen’s show – Uma Thurman in the front row – as he offered a black leather coat with appliquéd black mink.

Fur specialist J. Mendel – who added a ready-to-wear line to his fur collection just two years ago – proved that fur and everyday fashions make the perfect combination. Highlights included an Art Deco motif of white fur with trim at the curved seams of a broadtail-like burgundy coat. The cut echoed the prevailing bubble shapes Ruffian had chosen to design entirely in sleek beige mink.

More than ever, New York gave the world fur for all occasions.