GALLERIES Fendi galleries: See the bags . . . and the clothes

(CNN) -- Technical innovations are driving the '99 fall/winter Fendi collection. Shearing, beading, embroidery with micro-crystals and pearls as well as patchworks are adding new dimensions to everything from handbags to furs.

Silvia Fendi, who worked on the collection with Karl Lagerfeld, says they used a mixture of those techniques to embellish the trademark Fendi handbag -- the baguette.

"We have fur baguettes with different colors and different shapes, with silver buckles, with eye of tiger and with onyx," Fendi says. "You have baguettes made in real river pearls, and we have some baguettes in pony, made with a new technique. There is a pattern out of an acid that is like shaved. It's the same technique we use on our fur coats."

The bags are done in an array of unusual textures and contrasting colors, such as green and orange or blue and pink. Sometimes the beading and embroidery are done in softer colors, Fendi says. "So it's like a texture," she says. "You don't understand where is the leather and where is the beading and where is the fur. It's all a mixture."

Fendi is also out with a new "utilitarian" handbag. She says it's a "flat baguette that you can wear with a longer strap or around your waist, or just crossing your body." Other bags, made from cashmere and soft wool, have that "Old World" comfort and coziness. The color palette ranges from winter white to gray. Fendi says it's the overscale popcorn and tricot stitch that give these bags their casual luxury.

When it comes to furs, Fendi says she and Lagerfeld included different fabrics and cuts to make the coats more lightweight and sporty. "There are some felted furs, and there are some soft furs that are like nothing, velvet or really cotton," she says.

"The new coat is very soft on the shoulders, with a very nice cut -- like a little caftan shoulder," Fendi says. "Sometimes you have hoods and a very clean neck, and sometimes you also have big fur collars, heavy fur collars."

Fendi says she uses fur for more than just jackets and coats. "We do everything in furs," she says, "little shirts, skirts, dresses, pants, shoes -- everything that you can do with a normal fabric."

Italian craftsmanship is the hallmark of the collection, according to Fendi. "This is our roots," she says. "We are artisans, so we try to do what we know, what we are able to do, on every line we make."

CNN Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch contributed to this report.

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