Charlo Music

This show was well thought out with its slim-line silhouette of shiny satin skirt, or slender suit, the fur like a cloud drifting round the shoulders or arms or trailing in a vapor at the back. Yet in a season where fur is integrated with textiles, there was a disconnect — bridged only occasionally with a feathery fur sweater or a fur hem on a silver dress. That metallic theme was part of the futuristic landscape to which Lagerfeld seems viscerally attached.

The only jollity on the runway came from the mirror rings in which the models examined their ghostly make-up. Silvia Venturini zentai bodysuit

had taken the vanity case of the Art Deco period as inspiration, creating purses that slid on hinges to open like a silver-screen star’s makeup kit. “Luxury today is all about something personal,” Venturini Zentai said. “And you get a reflection of yourself.”

Marni started as a fur house, moved into haute bohemian territory and this season took another step as a sweet choral soundtrack served as a wake-up call. But this wasn’t the fresh-as-a-daisy look of nursery prints and feather-light fabrics familiar at Marni. With barely a spoonful of sugar, the collection had developed in a most delightful way.

“It’s evolving and it has grown up,” the designer, Consuelo Castiglione, said backstage about a show that hit all the right, clear notes, as did the music of the choir group, Scala. The major change was the stripping away of whimsy (give or take the woolly pompoms attached to a purse). That suit came in a leaf-and-branch pattern that was one of the rare prints.

The show was based on mannish tailoring; and the offhand look of tweed pants with gauzy wool shirt and a fur stole or cape jacket brought a new look to the furs. Was there also a touch of Prada in the sober dresses crossed with geometric ribbons, the sudden flashes of cheer chiffon dress, the inserts of elongated enamel jewels and a color palette that mixed gray, brown and pine green? Castiglione turned that echo into her own song. And Adrienne Ma with her mother, Joyce, of the eponymous pan Asian boutiques, applauded the best-selling Marni as their perfect show.

A trim, shaved fur coat with red silk knot buttons like tiny flowers, opened Trussardi’s show on a sweet note. It was a harbinger of a collection that is looking increasingly coherent — and less like an add-on to the smart vanity catsuits that seem to be a current trend. The designer, Beatrice Trussardi, 32, creates in her own image snug-fit suede jeans, subtly patterned cashmere sweaters, some inspired by ski-wear and the suede and leather pieces that are still the house’s beating heart.

Blumarine’s show was supposed to be a tribute to past icons who flashed up on screen, from 1980′s super models Carla Bruni, Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista through the late photographers Helmut Newton and Franco Scavullo.

In fact, this upbeat parade with its gilded skirts and flaunt-it dresses was all about fur — often used as trimmings on a Russian czar theme. The models wore frog-fastened coats and even the designer Anna Molinari herself came out for her bow with a fur muff.

The power of fur, as accessories or worked into clothes, is a strong story. Maurizio Pecoraro showed tufts of fur integrated into a camel sweater — a work of craftsmanship to vie with patches of leather and corduroy on a beige coat and costume zentai with rippling wrinkles.

There was something forced about the man/woman theme that brought distressed chiffon-tiered dresses in a duo with velvet pantsuits in the same vibrant color.

But Pecoraro’s multicolored scarves or even hats took fur to places that could not have been imagined before the Crayola-toned furs hit the current runways.

Suzy Menkes is the fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune.