22.02.2016
With New York frozen solid, it’s no wonder the city’s fashion houses continue to embrace fur in such a major way, and this week’s shows were a fur spectacular with mink and fox represented across catwalks. The fur story coming out of New York for AW16 is one of enveloping, voluminous shapes and graphic patterns – the latter either courtesy of intarsia or as the stripes on the backs of mink and fox, dyed to accentuate nature’s beautiful lines.
Jason Wu’s glossy black mink coat with a Palomino and White Mink grid intarsia pattern appeared in hundreds of Instagram posts as soon as it hit the runway, tailored with that slightly oversized, faintly mannish silhouette favoured by less-is-more designers.
Joseph Altuzarra brought his fur A-game again this season with a powerfully glamorous, ample Blue Fox coat dyed in red and black stripes, softly sculpted at the waist and closed with a slick zipper.
Stripes also ran through Wes Gordon’s restrained, elegant furs. A piercing strip of orange mink had been inserted in let-out Black Cross Mink on a collarless, nipped-in coat, and appeared as accent cuffs on a steely grey wool coat to strikingly modern effect.
At Oscar de la Renta, Peter Copping’s furs resembled a modernist artwork, combining red, black and white mink with fox in a diagonal pattern, set off by sleeves in red let-out mink. Another coat beautifully merged glamorous black fox sleeves and a matching hemline with the plush texture of a velvet coat.
A lover of juxtapositions in luxurious materials (her plush fox-trimmed sweaters are a hit with the likes of Kendall Jenner), Sally LaPointe showed a polished black coat with soft, black mink sleeves where a gleaming metal chain had been sewn on the leather, created by the Saga Furs Design Centre. Another standout look was a chic golden-hued cropped Fox-on-Fabric jacket.
The Fox-on-Fabric technique was also utilised at Nicole Miller to bring an understated, feathery pattern to a coat in tones of smoky grey and gold.
Brock Collection used mink to elevate their casual, cosy belted blazers and jackets. One piece, crafted entirely in let-out White Mink, had an air of hyper-luxurious dressing gown about it.
Fur’s innate light, tactile softness was symbolically interpreted in a feather-motif intarsia mink coat with a sumptuous fox trim at Prabal Gurung. The designer also explored the hybrid look in a longhaired fox coat with Silver Fox inserts. While oversize, it appeared almost buoyant.
That kind of voluminous lightness was also present at Jonathan Simkhai, who showed a creamy caramel dyed Shadow Fox coat in the Air Gallon technique – the quintessential Hollywood fur coat for the new generation of leading ladies.
Dyed fox was also the focus at Jonathan Cohen, where opulent red Silver Fox took centre stage on a red pinstripe coat as matching collar, cuffs and a sumptuous band across the hem.
Similarly, Ohne Titel had dyed Silver Fox in jewel-coloured blues and greens contrasted on eye-catching statement outerwear.
The silver-frosting technique – known from Fendi’s couture furs – made an appearance at Barbara Tfank on cropped eveningwear pieces, which added a dazzling touch to black fox.
Michael Kors also turned up the volume with a peanut butter-hued Arctic Marble Fox coat and embraced the intarsia vibe with a sky blue mink jacket dotted with intarsia flowers.
The natural volume of fox came into play at Bibhu Mohapatra, where Fawn Light Fox in the Air Gallon technique resulted in an impressive coat cinched warrior-style with a leather belt. A Silver Fox gilet had been dyed in a strong kingfisher blue.
The week wrapped on a gothic high with Marc Jacobs’ eccentric Victoriana girls who seemed to have raided a magical dress-up box somewhere. Everything was layered, fused and gigantic, like a coat that was long, golden mink on one side and short on the other with a big golden fox sleeve and a dramatic dark fox collar. Jacobs also wrapped a big, chubby fox stole around green fox, and sent Lady Gaga out in a cocooning coat with massive dyed Silver Fox bands on the arms – a fitting dramatic end to a week of furry delights.
Click here for more catwalk images.
Feb 22, 2016