Wild Things: Cool Girls Are Wearing Animal Print

Double down on all things animal …

Leopard print has always walked the line between good and bad taste. In fact, famous editrice Diana Vreeland, who heartily campaigned for a pinch of the latter, notably said she’d never met a version of the print she didn’t like. For AW25, the quiet luxury trifecta of fashion brands – Khaite, Totême and Loro Piana – embraced big cat dressing. At Khaite, leopard print was splashed across skirt suits, Totême – pushing the boundaries of ‘jolie-laide’ – showed calfhair printed wedges, while Loro Piana updated prim, Upper East Side cloche hats with cheetah print.

On the street this season, an expensive leopard coat is a status symbol – it shows you know what’s now and you have the budget to buy it. These coats rely on decadent fabrics (ponyhair and shearling; not a whiff of synthetic), lengths that skim your calf, and vivid prints. It’s a safe bet to try to resemble Jennifer Lawrence on the school run. Lawrence’s coat is by New York brand La Ligne, but other go-tos include Stand Studio’s Hilma collarless coat and Aflalo’s ponyhair coat (Aflalo is the new brand from Reformation founder Yael Aflalo) which costs about €9k. The trick, of course, to wearing such a creation lies in dialling down everything else you wear. Lawrence teams hers with beanies and baseball caps, stomping boots and slouchy jeans. The original tastemaker who revelled in leopard print was Carolyn Bessette Kennedy: her coat, with its leather piping, auctioned last year at Sotheby’s, was vintage. Apparently, Bessette Kennedy gifted it to her assistant; she thought she’d been photographed in it too much.

“On the street this season, an expensive leopard coat is a status stymbol.”

Jessica De Oliveira’s AI photo.

If leopard print now translates to peak stealth wealth, it begs the question: have we tamed it too much? How can we agitate it? Thankfully, fashion is proposing some appealing alternatives. Prints range from zebra and tiger, to lesser-spotted deer and Dalmatian. Style influencer Leandra Medine- Cohen’s recent collaboration with Swedish Stockings leads the charge for fierce tiger prints. At first glance, they might have connotations of Tony, the anthropomorphic tiger mascot for Frosted Flakes cereal, but they’ve got a nerve, a boldness, that piques our interest. If you like Dalmatians (not in the Cruella de Vil way), Liffner’s printed micro-tote is far cooler than attempting Instagram’s viral puppy photo which content creators across the app are producing with AI (as seen above). Aesthetes will appreciate a Patek Philippe wristwatch set with spessartites, its striking sapphire crystal dial emblazoned with a zebra motif.

For inspiration, look to Chloë Sevigny’s offbeat glamour in the 1990s. Sevigny teamed tiger print tights with an asymmetric black dress, a boutonnière and caged disco heels. It all feels a bit Carrie Bradshaw, though Carrie actually preferred giraffe: recall her Moschino dress in that iconic scene from Sex and the City where her Fendi Baguette was stolen on the streets of Soho. If you’re looking for novelty, do as Gwyneth Paltrow’s Marge Sherwood in The Talented Mr Ripley did, and work a leopard print hat. Brands like Maison Ola and Gigi Burris have emblazoned 1950s pillboxes with animal prints, with cool girls in New York and Paris wearing them with suiting and natty knits. Don’t worry too much about the clash. Good taste, bad taste and everything in between, Medine-Cohen’s only style advice is to, “Sit back, relax and lean into the weird.”

Burgundy leather Feline Frame bag, €1,616.95; www.charlotteolympia.com.

SEE MORE: 8 Brilliant Faux Fur Coats We’re Coveting Now