She wore a red petticoat under a loose, dark grey gown of damask trimmed in fur and a mantle of ermine.
Soon the sound of snapping saplings crackles from the undergrowth, and a face pokes from the treeline: two chocolate eyes, a pair of puffed-out cheeks and a wrinkled muzzle, framed by a mantle of cinnamon fur.
I had come to see the golden mantle tamarins, the fabulous fur ball sakis and the tail-twining titi monkeys.
There are hundreds following, among them the Reverend Diana Greenfield, AKA "the goth vicar", whose dog collar peeps over an elaborate mantle of leather and fur.
He wears a reddish brown mantle with a broad fur collar and, over it, a heavy gold chain from which the order of three horse tails, set in rich pendants, hangs on his right shoulder.
A great mantle of Crimson Satin furred with pure menyver.
Floor-length mantles with hoods lined with fur, long pleated trousers and shawls the size of tablecloths were among his designs.
As you sat in the audience at Christian Dior, squinting the sun from your eyes and licking globules of perspiration from your lips nervously, watching the models perambulate around in one-armed renaissance mantles of cashmere, leather or fur, one thought crossed your mind: get real.
Everything has its tidal movement, slow or edging -- look at the cats' fur, the children's hair, the convolutions of the shell, the cascade of the mantle, the whirlpool of the three grotesque faces, the gentle river-bend of the nude flowing to the floor, the delta-like folds across the Persian's gown.
Other notable experiments during the season: Consuelo Castiglioni at Marni used a new embroidered technique with fur, and Roberto Cavalli assembled pieces of mink, astrakhan, pekan, sable, fin raccoon and fox to make lightweight mantles.
