Moodboard: This Month The Mood Is Animalier

My late mother couldn’t resist an animal print, and neither can I. In one of our last snapshots together, we’re both wearing leopard print tops (or is mine cheetah?); to the bittersweet end, at each other’s throats or enjoying each other’s company, it was clear neither of us could change her spots.

While Dior is credited with introducing leopard print to the catwalk via his New Look first show in 1947, the wearing of animal skin throughout history provided more than just warmth and protection; warriors and royalty favoured hair-on hide pelts, so hell-bent were they on channelling the strength and spirit of wild beasts. Dior alchemised the motif into bold haute couture prints on silk and other fabrics, creating an evening dress in chiffon he dubbed “Africaine”, and the “Jungle” ensemble for day. Spotted soon after: hats, handbags, heels and homewares.

The etymology of the French word animalier, from the Latin word for animal, refers to a cadre of early 19th-century French artists, typically sculptors working in bronze, specialising in the realistic depiction of animals. Plan a visit to Paris to the recently reopened weird and wonderful Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, a hunting and nature museum in the Marais, showcasing hunting-related paintings, sculpture, taxidermy and traps alongside the work of featured contemporary artists in intimate dialogue with the museum’s permanent collection; I caught a memorable 2015 show of operatic canvases featuring fantastical, often extinct species by American maximalist painter Walton Ford. For the occasion, my cheeky monkey companion wore a butter silk cap-sleeve blouse emblazoned with a Walton Ford ape.

Michael Kors called leopard print “an outrageous neutral”; downplay it against a black turtleneck and jeans, a là 1990s style icon the late Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, whose vintage, double-breasted faux-leopard fur coat sold for $33,600 at Sotheby’s. A trawl through the extravagant archive of King of the Jungle-print Roberto Cavalli makes us purr. Not content to adorn a sexy cocktail dress with a big cat leitmotif, Italian designer Cavalli mixed it up: tigers and pythons and zebras, oh my! Supersized fragments of butterfly wings wrap around a oneshouldered sheath dress, a fringe of golden feathers (printed shoulder to hip) frames a jaguar-print pencil dress, pink plumage yassifies a short silk kaftan … too much is never enough for Cavalli’s glamour-hungry fans.

How do you like your leopard print? Sophia Loren-inspired, babushkato- stiletto, as modelled by Kim and Kourtney for Dolce & Gabbana x Skims? Think Pussycat Doll, cinched into a silk lace-up corset over a sheer, bodyhugging catsuit and grrrrl, you’re ready to wiggle through the jungle, you sex kitten, you! Or do you stalk pre-loved designer resale for sophisticated leopard-print pieces from Tom Ford’s spring 2002 ready-to-wear collection for YSL Rive Gauche? Ford’s body-skimming sheer feline tank over a leopard-laced caramel pencil skirt gives slender muscularity to sensual nocturnal creatures on the prowl when paired with a stacked heel sandal. But don’t just relegate animal prints to after dark. You’ll find teeny leopard cardis and leggings, from Blumarine to BTs, Massimo Dutti to M&S. I spotted a leopard-print puffer at Next, just like one I’d sent my mother; it arrived at her Philadelphia apartment the day after her funeral. Note to self: wear leopard-print often, while you still roam the earth. @susanzelouf

1. I’M PLANNING holidays in Pompeii, à la Fausto Puglisi’s lava-licious AW25 Robert Cavalli collection.

2. I’M FENDING off paparazzi in Bottgea Veneta Bombe cateye sunglasses in Havana brown.

4. I’M BUYING a stairway to heaven carpeted in Diane von Furstenberg’s Climbing Leopard, to order from www.therugcompany.com.

7. I’M GRAZING on Kendal zebra-print porcelain dinnerware by www.ralphlauren.co.uk.