New York Fashion Week

Tie dye rabbit coat with black velvet high top and perforated wide pants

Ever since finding her passion through painting, Adrienne Landau has come to design some of the most memorable fur fashion items in the fashion industry. Whether it’s playing with fox or rabbit fur for coats and hats, to getting creative with textures and designs, all of her work has a distinctive feel that is found nowhere else.

On February 17 at the Adrienne Landau pop-up showroom on Fashion Avenue, 30 models appeared on the catwalk to showcase some of the new designs from her Fall 2016 collection. Aside from the regular coats and skirts, new items for Landau included hats, backpacks, and bombers, in an attempt to appeal to the youth-street-wear culture found in city streets.

Cartoon leopard print coat with perforated midriff tank. Black crystal sweat pants with orange trapper hat and orange nylon backpack with black raccoon accents.

The fabrics, besides fur, included a mix of mesh, nylon, velvet, leather, tulle, canvas, cashmere, and more. There was a wide variety of furs in use, like lamb, raccoon, goat, and mink, with a majority being either rabbit or fox. For the most part, the styles featured “texture blocking” where the smooth and soft fur of a vest contrasted nicely with a mesh shirt, or perforated pants contrasted well with a velvet top and rabbit coat.

As for the accessories, they were either hit or miss. The backpacks were well made, with the signature fur adding style to a redundant object. However, Landau’s use of fur on a gym duffel bag was puzzling, considering that the bag was covered in fur and would be used carrying sneakers and equipment. The same can go with a baseball cap completely covered in in fur. It reminded us of a Russian ushanka hat. Aside from that, the line was very fashionable, and quite flattering. You can read our exclusive interviews with Landau and artistic director Saolo Villela below.

Beige knitted rabbit jogger suit and rabbit fur vest with reflector fabric with knitted rabbit fur jogger pants

Adrienne Landau

What was your inspiration for this year’s line?

I just looked at the street and what people were wearing. It’s kind of like the street cool shapes—even the backpacks, it’s like everybody wears backpacks and I just wanted to spruce it up. I wanted it to be almost couture but still fun and young and have that new attitude. And all the clothing, I’m so excited, because I’ve always wanted to do it, but it’s pieces that I love that are just items. Like a gray skirt or a gray see through top, I just like the whole texture thing going on with all the furs. I think it just gives off a new vibe to fur. I think it’s really adding pockets, adding zippers, a new lining. It’s sort of not all fur but it’s nylon, fur—we wanted to get all new shapes.

It’s been said that you’ve tried to match an androgynous style with the models.

Knitted silver dyed fox vest with lack crystal pullover and tulle/leather sleeves. Fur/leather short shorts and silver dyed fox fanny pack

Well a lot of these pieces are unisex. Like I think there are so many more guys wearing fur now. But it’s also, instead of it being “Oh I’m wearing a fur scarf, or a fur hat,” it’s “Hey, I can really wear this.” And it’s not too much fur, it’s not like all fur, but it’s got the nylon sleeves or maybe taking that whole sweatshirt but putting mink panels on the front. Like everybody does only fur lining or a big fur hood, so I wanted to kind of say “No, I want to do something totally new.”

And for backpacks, what was the inspiration from the street to use them?

It’s all street! It’s all street stuff, it’s like everybody you look at has a back pack and I wanted to use that. You know, this is a collection for somebody that I see in Beverly Hills or Aspen. Yes, but it’s for everybody; I feel like it’s new and it hasn’t been done yet. So I sort of combined that whole thing. You know, these casual fun coats but putting fur in an unusual place.

It’s a very casual yet professional line.

Rabbit/nylon parka with raccoon hood trim; black mesh muscle shirt; black velvet pants; and army green nylon backpack with raccoon face and rabbit straps

Yeah it could be dressy, like some girls are dressy and some casual. But I think that’s the way people dress today, but it’s unexpected. But I think it’s just being comfortable too. Young, cool, comfortable, hip, but still “Oh my God, where did you get that?” We’ve been getting a fabulous response so I’m excited but I’m excited about the ready to wear, the pants and a lot of little tops, the mesh. It can be dressy but it’s still a very casual fabric.

Saulo Villela

How was it like getting to be the artistic director for the show?

It’s amazing. It’s great brand, it’s all about fun and usually she’s very oriented, whether it’s just designing a vest or a scarf and everyone knows her for that. So this season, we wanted to make it relevant, young, so we threw in some bombers, some backpacks, we threw in some opulent sweatpants. It’s very opulent, very young, but it still looks very lux, which has always been her thing and “instinct-lamb” has always been her motto so it was awesome, it was a lot of fun.

And how did you choose which models wore which styles?

I guess it was more of a natural process. You know, we looked at the girls, we looked at the guys, we fitted them. You know, this collection is a lot about diversity as well, so we were really trying to play with skin tones and trying to complement that. And trying to pick unique girls with unique looks. It was a process but it was based on diversity and the models’ unique look.

Is there anything we should watch out for in the collection?

I would say keep an eye out on the backpacks, the bombers, and the hats. We have really cool trapper hats with masks, like ski masks, and then we have really cool baseball hats and the bucket hats, they’re all made of fur.