International Catwalks Set the Stage for Spectacular Innovations
For
Autumn/Winter 2006-2007, the emergence of a new sense of shape and structure
in designer collections has made fur not only a key element this season, it
has provided a vital direction for the image of fur itself.
Rounded shapes,
A-line silhouettes, cropped jackets, and architectural looks are the
season’s key signatures, and everywhere, designer fur has been masterfully cut or
combined with fabrics and leather, using detailing that emphasizes collars
and cuffs, sleeves and pockets, borders and edges.
Colour and
shape replace ornamentation and decoration as the focal points. A quiet
sensuality turns up in pared-down power-dressing, sometimes with metallic
touches for a bit more glamour. Black continues to best show the new
silhouettes, joined this season by winter white and grey, along with a
palette of dark colours.
One of the key looks for Autumn/Winter 2006-2007 is the voluminous
rounded silhouette, with elements that range from rounded shoulders, to
rounded sleeves that are puffed, gathered or belled, to bubble and tulip
hemlines.
Some of the best examples were at Chado Ralph Rucci, where the
designer fashioned chinchilla into a deep-green bubble jacket, complete with
rounded shoulders, or at Alberta Ferretti, whose collarless mink coat in
midnight blue featured dropped shoulders and gathered sleeves, and was tied
at the waist with a bow.
The New Fur
Coat.
Designers have come up with new ways of working with fur, and the
result is a garment that is more casual and wearable. It’s the ‘New Fur
Coat’, combining the best of fur with materials such as fabric or leather in
innovative ways. It’s the way a modern woman will wear fur everyday, because
it is easily worked into her lifestyle.
Marc Jacobs
started the trend, with his single breasted grey wool coat, topped with dyed
silver fox crafted oversized rounded collar and full, belled sleeves.
Burberry Prorsum designer Christopher Bailey takes on the style using fox to
update Burberry’s classic trench coat, now detailed with deep, fur banding
from waist to hem, deep fur cuffs and an oversized collar.
At Prada,
designer Miuccia Prada took a slim wrap coat in a grey animal-print and gave
it, shoulder-defining silver fox sleeves.
In Patrick Robinson’s debut
collection for Paco Rabanne, one outstanding star was a slim navy leather
coat made luxuriously contemporary with brown fox sleeves.
Designers were creative and plentiful in their use of
designer fur touches at a
garment’s many edges, borders, collars and cuffs to give it a new shape and
visual interest.
Jean Paul Gaultier mixed a brown shearling coat and gave it
a deep, border of vertically worked golden isle fox.
Cuffs were a focal
point for several designers’ use of fur accent. Carolina Herrera used fox
cuffs and collar to accent her mauve silk faille wrap gown.
Bill Blass added
sable cuffs to a cognac embellished coat tied well above the waist.
When
trimming the border or the cuff with fur wasn’t enough, designers used both,
such as Chado Ralph Rucci’s pale yellow wool A-line coat with a rounded
hemline, accented with sable cuffs and borders.
Milan led the trend where new shorter lengths appeared at Miu Miu,
Prada, Balenciaga, and Gucci, and what better to join this new look than
mini fur coats. Costume National’s ombred dyed grey fox fur coat had gathered
sleeves and a leather belt. Slinking down the catwalk at Gucci was a
sleeveless golden fox mini coat worn over a metallic mini dress with a sexy,
low-plunging cowl neckline.
Prada’s hooded black anorak, trimmed in fur,
worked well over a sheer black mini dress.
For
Autumn/Winter 2006-2007 the global fashion community has turned out strong,
powerful fur looks that fit the lifestyle of modern women. These new shapes
and creative uses of designer fur have reached out to a new customer, one who has
never worn fur before.
Autumn/Winter 2006-2007 women's collections are inspired by diverse sources
From couture
shapes of an earlier era, to dark shadows of rich, illuminated colour and
the elegance of subtle glamour, fur has achieved a new power and authority
in fashion. Here are three key highlights of this powerful Autumn/Winter
season in women’s furs.
Purists.
This
group of designers have fashioned a season of pure, stripped-down style in
which shape and structure dominate. Alberta Ferretti used sleek structure
with an elegant line in a black wool cape and wide black fox collar.
The
karakul jacket at Marni showed shape in its cropped length and belled
sleeves. Rounded shoulders provided shape in an animal-print coat at Marc
Jacobs, made opulent with a fox border. Using shape to its fullest, J.
Mendel created a steel-grey karakul coat with structured shoulders and a
narrow waist, worn in contrast over a slightly flared skirt.
The New
Romantics.
A shift toward romantic dressing was evident at shows in Paris,
Milan, London and New York. From romantic elegance to a darker, shadowy view
of fashion, designers often found their inspiration in things historical.
The Toscana maxi coat by John Galliano
at Christian Dior was embellished with a pilgrim belt buckle and fox trim.
Romanticism was paired with naturalism in Jean Paul Gaultier’s fox cape.
Napoleonic style was the interpretation at Dolce & Gabbana, who took a
face-framing white mink scarf with mink tails and paired it with a cropped
jacket with oversized notch collar.
Roberto Cavalli’s deep-garnet seamed and intricately worked coat was given a
romantic touch with rich fox cuffs.
˚
Glamour with
Attitude.
Furs for Autumn/Winter 2006-2007 showed that glamour can take on a
powerful stance for modern women, in ways that go to extremes, such as the
use of metallic and coats that contrasted maxi against mini.
At Gucci
pinstripes in purple and white endowed a sheared mink maxi coat with luxe
power, while at Costume National a new mini coat mixed gold satin with mink
sleeves. At Prada, unusual fur placements gave coats the unexpected edge,
such as mink patched pockets and fox backing on a brown wool coat.
These
Autumn/Winter 2006-2007 directions in fur draw from diverse influences, but
whatever the style, fur is the defining element in fashion.
The season's
accessories play off the dual themes of shape and proportion.
In a season
when less means more, the newest accessories speak volumes, both in terms of
providing accents for the new spare silhouettes and in the way their own
shapes and proportions spotlight these trends. Fur accessories presented for
Autumn/Winter 2006-2007 uniformly follow this shift in shape, and finish the
look that designer architects have created in their fashions.
Rounding Up
Accessories.
Given the Autumn/Winter season’s penchant for all things round,
it’s only natural that the accessories would follow suit. Most typical was
the fur helmet, in black fox fur at Givenchy. A suede peak was added to Nina
Ricci’s helmet in brown muskrat.
J. Mendel opted for a black knitted karakul
skullcap. The helmet achieved a bucket shape, done in coyote at Hermes.
Accentuating a rounder proportion in handbags, Alexander McQueen turned
sheared grey fox fur into a hobo bag, perfect for the ‘fashionista’ who has
everything!
Playing With
Proportions.
Designers went to the limits with fur accessories this season
making each accessory a statement in itself by playing up new proportions. A
good example is the oversized fur-cuffed cap at Louis Vuitton and perhaps
more directional, the larger-than-life white mink signature-print saddlebag.
Proportions that were intentionally exaggerated came into play with Zang
Toi’s oversized fox stole, which mimicked the grand scale of the large,
re-proportioned tartan in his trouser suit. The newest play on proportions
involves long over short, most notably in Versace’s pairing mink-trimmed
opera-length navy leather gloves with a sleeveless knit mini dress.
The
introduction of new accessories that play with shape and proportion turned
up the volume on fur and confirmed the bold new direction of shape in
fashion for Autumn/Winter 2006-2007.
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