Dennis Basso is in a celebratory mood. Fresh off the thirtieth anniversary of his label, the furrier has opened a four-story shop in a Madison Avenue town house. "A mini Dennis Basso department store," as he likes to call it. Along with his signature furs and evening gowns, the designer has put in great effort to be taken seriously as a maker of separates and accessories. For Pre-Fall, he teamed up with Brian Atwood to create a pair of sexy-but-not-too-revealing legging boots, which were worn under a houndstooth miniskirt. That same houndstooth print was transferred onto a fur sweatshirt, which, when thrown over a turtleneck, looked modern. Basso is obsessed with mixing high and low. "It used to be that women wouldn't even wear sequins during the day," he said. Now, he likes the way clients pair his cropped tweed jacket—embellished with artfully tarnished spangles and other beads—with a colorful ball gown. The jacket's matching pencil skirt, on the other hand, was dialed down a notch when worn with a shearling bomber.
