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The Jewish Chronicle

Time to find your animal instincts

November 5, 2009 11:55
Leopard-print ruffle blouse, £40, black trousers, Linea £49, House of Fraser

ByJan Shure, Jan Shure

3 min read

Leopards may not be able to change their spots, but they can definitely change their image, thanks, primarily, to the fact that over the past few years celebrities noted for being über-cool have been donning animal print pieces.

Kate Moss has been seen in the past 12 months in leopard-print faux fur jackets, a Cavalli animal print dress and leopard-print mules.

Kylie Minogue was papped looking totally on-trend in a short, leopard-print fake fur jacket over a long sweater and jeans, while Nicky Hilton, the infinitely better dressed younger sister of Paris, was photographed recently in a grey animal print dress, worn with black opaques, black courts, groomed hair and almost no jewellery. (Her sister, on the other hand, should have reined back on the leopard print, having been snapped wearing — all at the same time — leopard-print leggings, a not-quite matching leopard shirt, a leopard handbag and, as if that wasn’t enough big-cat references, a leopard-print hairband).

All of which means those of us who remember Bet Lynch, the Coronation Street barmaid with her peroxide beehive, scarlet nails, gravity-defying earrings (in her heyday, she out-dangled even EastEnders' Pat Butcher), have to come out from behind the sofa, take our hand away from our eyes and take a fresh look at leopard.