Furriers heard the word from the fashion capitals of the world, and it was:
short, short, short. In response, they have cut, cut, cut, turning out the shortest fur season in more than a decade.
As the fall fur collections opened here last week, it was sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a long jacket and a short coat. The newest furs top the knee and climb the thigh with stylish nonchalance. Some may tremble at the thought of above-the-knee coats in below-zero weather, but fur designers regard the concept with fashionable sang-froid.
”The only really new thing in furs is to make them shorter,” said designer Bill Blass, after showing a collection packed with knee-length and mini furs. ”The Chicago ladies are going to d-i-i-i-e, aren`t they?” he added, with a grin. ”That`s why we showed them with leg warmers.” In fact, woolen stockings, leg warmers or matte jersey leggings accompanied most of the shorter numbers in every collection, with the leggy look often extended by tall, soft boots.
Light and liberating
Seductively light and liberating after years of long, voluminous furs with lumberjack shoulders, the new, short furs are truly city coats. Swirling out over a good pair of legs, they`re made for running in and out of limousines and restaurants, not for taking on the Yukon or even a walk in the country.
Retailers and designers expect that the shorter furs will appeal primarily to the woman who already has a full-length fur, or has the lifestyle for which a knee-length stroller or topper is a practical choice. As Blass put it: ”The longer ones are fine for ski resorts.”
While the news is short, there are still plenty of long coats around, especially classic polo, reefer and balmacaan styles in big foxes, lynx, raccoons and beavers, not to mention precious sables and fisher. However, they also were shown with the new, short fall skirts, a proportion not seen since the days of miniskirts and maxicoats in the 1960s.
No problem, assured the designers. ”Very long with very short. I think it is very pretty,” said Oscar de la Renta. But will the customer buy it?
”Now, she should buy a short coat,” he insisted. ”But I don`t think it`s a question of either-or. It can be both.”
”I`ve been through it before,” sighed Ernest Graf, president of Ben Kahn Furs, which introduced the stunning first fur collection by top French shoe designer Maud Frizon. ”I started in 1947, when Dior dropped the length, and then, of course, there were the minis. From down to up is not so tragic as up to down, because to make a coat longer is a major project. The only problem we have now are the prices.”
Prices up, too
Indeed, fur prices have risen with the hemlines. This is especially true for mink, the foundation of the fur industry, where demand has driven prices up 10 to 50 percent over last year, according to a range of furriers, compared with rises of 10 to 15 percent for other furs, particularly longhairs. As a result, this season`s collections featured far more beaver, raccoon, fox and lamb.
In some instances, shorter lengths will mean slightly smaller prices for the consumer. But not in the case of the short, swingy coat, the season`s top silhouette.
”Generally, even though they`re shorter, they`re fuller,” said Stanley Schulman, president of Alixandre Furs, which carries the Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino and Perry Ellis lines.
Along with the new, short length, other top fur trends for fall include:
— Swing: The coat of the season is the short swinger with full sleeves and shapely shoulders, either in a swirly tent or flyaway style with plenty of movement in the back.
Karl Lagerfeld, in a stellar first fur collection under his own name for Revillon, did it best in flirty black lamb with a faux leopard lining and rich ranch mink with a witty snail-shaped design at the collar and cuffs. In another great debut, Frizon showed a spirited tent in creamy baum marten in her imaginative collection for Ben Kahn, while Valentino translated the swirly short coat into terrific sable and chinchilla styles at Alixandre.
— New horizons: Designers like the horizontal look this season, with wide or narrow bands of fur composing the entire coat, or providing accents on sleeves, back detailing or patch pockets.
Oscar de la Renta sent out short, full-bodied horizontal foxes and coyotes for Wagner Fur, while Bill Blass presented ribs of black fox on a short sheared beaver for Mohl Furs and Valentino showed a camel mink trench with horizontal back details.
— Lamb: Considered an old lady`s fur in recent years, lamb has made the leap from baa-baa-blah to fresh and frisky, whether in silky broadtail, wild Mongolian, tightly curled Persian or the flatter types in between, such as Swakara and Bukara. It was sophisticated in a black broadtail evening suit by De la Renta, casual in a pearl gray trench coat by Perry Ellis for Alixandre. — Duffel coats: A perfect match with the new, shorter, sportier length, these hooded classics with their leather toggles pop up in almost every collection in a variety of furs, from lynx at Valentino to navy sheared beaver at Frizon and chestnut-dyed blue fox at Basile for Goldin-Feldman Furs.
— Back to nature: Tricky furs are out. Complicated cuts and exotic colors pale beside simple, luxuriously fully let-out pelts in their original color or, at least, one found in nature, such as camel. Added interest comes from mixing different furs, such as white mink trimmed with fox at Christian Dior.
— After dark: Stoles and wraps, grace notes in the fall ready-to-wear shows, proliferate in furs as well, particularly at night. Michael Kors for Birger Christensen showed long cashmere-lined mink stoles, while De la Renta did his in sable and Claude Montana sent his out in mink dyed in rich cognac for Birger Christensen. —
