Peter SomDesigner Peter Som brightens Fall/Winter 2009 with a capsule collection that goes straight to the heart of what he and the brand are all about. Mixing color, texture and pattern, Som stays true to his fashion sensibilities using fur as a color accent or a rich texture. One example: a beautiful China-blue broadtail coat with lush sable collar shown over an Asian-inspired print dress. Som’s pairing of a blue maroon fox vest with a colorful tweed jacket and textured black skirt made the classic tweed suit passé. There’s more color at play in Som’s bold mixing of a graphic-bordered floral print dress with an ultra-blue broadtail shrug with mink cap sleeves. Som treats fur as a texture to entice, as in his collarless tiger-print mink coat with 7/8 sleeves and his tiger-print mink bolero worn over an easy black-and-white textured dress. While Som’s clothes are always feminine, they are never fussy and this season there’s an easy, breezy feel to the collection and to his furs.

Zang ToiSophistication and glamour define Zang Toi’s Fall 2009 collection. This season the designer was inspired by Vienna, the Austrian capital known for its glamorous balls and opera. Toi’s ivory-beaded-and-embroidered-lace sheath dress with matching stole lined in fox foretells of intimate evenings for two while his draped, red wool jersey gown with pink bows and a drop-dead pink Mongolian lamb wrap defines drama. For day, Toi’s herringbone-and-tweed looks recall the patterning of antique furniture, as in his black-and-ivory silk-and-cashmere cardigan with tip-dyed fox collar and matching dress and his black-and-white tweed pantsuit with a mink-trimmed wrap reversing to velvet. Toi’s smoky color palette evokes images of the city’s elegant cafes, a fitting venue for his black peaked fox-collared cashmere trouser suit or fox-collared opera coat. Zang Toi plays with our emotions this season, in a collection resplendent with glamour and femininity, perfect fare for a modern romantic.

VenexianaKatie Stern, trained as an architect, brings a unique perspective to the world of design. Clearly, her love affair with the city of Venice influenced the Fall/Winter 2009 collection, as is evident in evening gowns awash with pale colorations, metallics and pleat effects. Stern knows how to cut a fur and the Fall collection speaks volumes about that skill. The show’s opening look was the pièce de résistance: a fitted karakul jacket and skirt with a dramatically draped Blue Iris mink collar and cuffs. Another show-stopper was a black sequined cocktail dress capped with a fox stole with Swarovski trim and ermine tails. A shapely python jacket was trimmed with fox cuffs while a gray shearling jacket was lavished with a purple mink ruffled collar. Stern designs for an international customer, much like herself, and her Fall collection with its couture fur looks are sure to please.

Tuleh Bryan Bradley’s Fall/Winter 2009 collection is the perfect mix of men’s wear styling and femininity. From the opening look on the runway to the finale’s intricately detailed brocade coat with sheared-mink intarsia border, each perfectly executed look shows Bradley’s mastery for detail. The curve of a collar, the cut of a coat, the simple but significant pairings, all worked this season’s message. Dramatic examples included a sable-collared, black-and-gold art nouveau coat; a finely knit sweater cut like a coat with a deeply layered sable capelet; a hooded, stenciled-goat sleeveless jacket worn over a chiffon dress; a big dyed silver fox toque to wear with a little print dress; and a deep green sable toque. No doubt, Reyes’ ladies will be, like the runway music, “feeling good.”

RUNWAY REPORTthe FeBRuARy 18, 2009

323.782.1700 www.fur.org

THe NATuRAL, ReSPONSIBLe CHOICe

In a time marked by an all-too-sober reality, there was a renewed sense of optimism at 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue as New York’s Fall 2009 Fashion Week began. An international cast of editors, retailers and fashionistas swept into the tents for the season’s first shows and, despite a few bumps in the road, we know that there’s a happy ending. The business of fashion and fur is like none other. Designers have worked this most versatile precious fabric into special unique styles, ranging from sexy to modern to frankly feminine — all of which highlight fur’s importance in the New York runway collections.

RUNWAY REPORTthe

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Peter Som

Alexander Wang

Venexiana

Zang Toi

Alexander WangThis CFDA winner is a true modernist, and his Fall/Winter 2009 collection shows he deserves the recognition. Proving that he knows how to make women look sexy and modern, his minimalist color palette of black and white underscores the masterful cut that is the trademark of the collection. Wang knows his way around fur, too, fashioning it in unexpected ways, as in his sleek black wool coat with peak-shouldered fox sleeves and crocodile collar and flaps. The jumpsuit, a key look this season, gets the Wang treatment with sleek glazed leather with fox sleeves. Wang’s furs are designed for a confident woman who is unafraid to stand out wherever she finds herself. For example, a big belted fox jacket shown with full glazed leather track pants, or a sheer black evening top in organza with sheared and long-haired mink, fox and feathers. Both are sexy, luxurious, and styled for a modern woman.

Tuleh

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