Animal prints are no stranger to fashion. They are often marked as seasonal “trends” but in all honesty, they have always been in style.
Zebra and leopard prints showed up recently in couture collections for both Armani Privé and Dior.
One designer to treat animal prints slightly differently in the late ’80s and early ’90s was Krizia Mariuccia Mandelli. Better know as Krizia, she did a more sophisticated version of the kitschy ski sweater, with leopards and wolves adorning wild creatures known as supermodels.
Stella McCartney payed homage to Krizia, and to her own love of animals in her Pre-Fall 09 collection, by showing a modern version of the leopard sweater.
Now this is a déjà vu we don’t mind having. I’d love to pair the Stella sweater with a pair of giraffe-high suede boots, like the Halston Misa boot from last Fall.
Stella image source. Krizia image source. Halston image source.
Boots a definite must have. However, the animal prints bring me back to my childhood in the 1980s.