Understanding fashion’s obsession with animals

Valentino and his pugs, Karl Lagerfeld’s Burmese cat Choupette, and it’s even said that Roberto Cavalli owned a pet tiger: designers have always been obsessed with animals, particularly their four-legged companions. Fashion has long been fascinated by the animal world, which has proven to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Thanks to the return of the animal print trend, animals have officially returned to inhabit the runways in the latest fashion week cycle. Just think of the Le Chat de La Maison, a cat-shaped bag designed by Alessandro Michele for his debut at Valentino SS25 show. To launch the bag, the brand's social channels featured reels showing a giant cat shopping through the crowded streets of New York or popping out from behind the Roman store of the maison. Michele—who, even during his years as creative director of Gucci, never hid his love for animals (just think of the iconic Dionysus bag with its double tiger-head buckle and the baby dragons of FW18)—paid tribute to Garavani in Pre-Fall 2025 with a dress printed with micro pug motifs, worn with colorful lace stockings and a leopard-print coat. Michele isn’t the only one enchanted by the animal world: Matthieu Blazy, for his latest Bottega Veneta show, created a set that was somewhere between a farm and the Magical World of Oz, transforming the Zanotta Bean Bag into chickens, elephants, ladybugs, and other animals to serve as seating for the show’s guests. On the runway, models walked in belts with rabbit-shaped buckles and pumps adorned with tiny frogs placed just above the arch of the foot.

Recent collections have been rich in animal-related prints, beyond just animal print. Rocco Iannone, heading the Ferrari fashion line, offered dresses and pajamas featuring the maison's iconic prancing horse for Pre-Fall 2025. Massimo Giorgetti, for MSGM FW25, designed shirts with rabbit prints and in SS25, a sky-blue sweater with a crab printed on one side. Acne Studios, on the other hand, presented a mesh dress printed with a polar bear during FW25, enriched by a white faux fur headpiece. Also, Glenn Martens designed dresses and bags featuring 2D prints of chicks and cats for Pre-Fall 2025. Adrian Appiolaza, playing with the Moschino archive, drew a long dress with geese and a skirt printed with a monkey on an acid green background for the Resort 2025 collection—later reimagined as dungarees.

Turning to menswear, Undercover, drawing from the birdscape trend, created jackets adorned with feathers for FW25, paired with owl-shaped shoes. Meanwhile, Kim Jones, for Dior Men SS25, proposed dove-shaped brooches and sweaters decorated with bird prints surrounded by blooming trees. Pharrell Williams, for more recent Louis Vuitton Men collections, has designed oversized travel bags in the shape of various dog breeds, not to mention the dolphin bag from Pre-Fall 2025. Silvia Venturini for Fendi also gave in to this trend: for the SS25 menswear collection, celebrating the brand’s 100th anniversary, she created a bag featuring an emblem with a squirrel inside—a nod to the very first symbol of the brand. Thom Browne, for Pre-Fall 2025, playfully reimagined his classic formal grey suits with micro heron and duck prints, paired with swan-shaped bags or the iconic Hector Dachshund Bag. Of course, no discussion of the animal world would be complete without mentioning Roberto Cavalli. Creative director Fausto Puglisi designed python-print dresses for the most recent winter collection, while for SS25—commemorating the founder’s recent passing—he closed the show with archival pieces worn by Cavalli’s favorite top models, including Maria Carla Boscono dressed in feathers in hues between raven and peacock, and Karen Elson as a sparkling sequin tiger.