Wardrobe Wednesday: Suede + Fur

Yes, that's a fur collar on that coat.

Happy Wednesday, everyone! In this edition of Wardrobe Wednesday, I’m focusing on the lightweight, yet warm, fur-trimmed Brix Coat I designed for my Romantique collection in autumn 2013 (you can go here to read my previous blog posts on the entire collection).

Late afternoon sun was making hay with the colors on my cowl. If
you see some similarities between the colors in the coat and cowl,
you'd be correct, since some of the yarn used in the cowl were
small bits left from what I used for the main body of the coat.

In case you weren’t aware, there were a lot of coats on the F/W 2015 runway – hey, it was cold last winter. While I’m not necessarily a coat gal (I’ve got two go-to coats, plus a third for really cold weather climes), I have had and continue to have a serious crush on fur embellishments. Fur can be difficult to design with, since a lot of the faux fur yarn out there is … well … less than optimal, shall we say. I haven’t worked with all of them, but one that I really like is Lion Brand Yarn’s Romantic (and my 2013 fall collection name is pure coincidence but it works, oui?).  The fur is silky, very soft, has great drape, and I think just a little bit sexy. For trim and other small elements, I recommend it highly. I’ve incorporated it into several designs, so I’m super thrilled to be able to build an outfit around this coat.

A more complete photo of
the suede skirt.

I’ve taken a long suede skirt I’ve had for several years, topped it with a simple long sleeved tee-shirt, added black suede booties and, with the coat, it’s a vision in purples and burgundies. I’ve also included one of my recently completed Gradient Flower Cowls that I’ll wear when I’m inside and not wearing the coat. I also show a simple necklace (the Sanyu Single Long Necklace that I purchased from a former design student) that not only looks great with the outfit, but is environmentally and socially conscious.

I’m pretty pleased with how this outfit came together, and I’m actually rather looking forward to wearing it, like, very soon.