by Cat vs dog. It is a trick as old as time. But in fashion at least, cats are moving up in the popularity stakes. Model Claudia Schiffer attended the London premiere in Argyll on Wednesday night with her cat, Chip, in a custom backpack with a clear plastic dome to ensure photographers got the best angles in the Scottish hole. Chip stars in the new thriller, directed by Schiffer’s husband, Matthew Vaughn.
Described by Schiffer as a “nepo cat”, Chip not only acts but has his own dedicated Instagram account (14,000 followers and counting). This week, Chip launched an “autobiography”, an illustrated book that shows how he escaped the “shadow mold”.
Last week when the singer Lana Del Rey was revealed as the star of a new campaign for Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand Skims, the image of Del Rey pouting seductively and three white cats looking insouciantly went viral.
It’s not just real cats that have made their way into the spotlight. At the men’s shows in Milan and Paris this month, cat motifs dominated the catwalks at JW Anderson and Givenchy, while American fashion designer Tory Burch unveiled a pop-up shop in LA featuring giant photos of meowing cats. Burch used the same feline prints on wide-leg trousers and T-shirts. Elsewhere, Acne Studios showed a long-sleeved top with a white cat with huge blue eyes, very similar to the one that sat on Blofeld’s lap in James Bond.
Fashion’s exaggerated endorsement of ailurophiles suggests that the “crazy cat lady” trope, which has disappeared with the generations that have clawed its way into contemporary culture, may be dead, or it may be making a comeback at least. In December for her Person of the Year cover, Taylor Swift draped one of her three cats, a ragdoll named Benjamin Button, over her shoulders. Even Carrie Bradshaw tackled the archetype in the series finale of And Just Like That when she brought home a rescue kitten, whom she named Shoe. On TikTok, the hashtag CrazyCatLady has more than 230,000 posts, many young people introducing their cats to the camera.
Anja Charbonneau, founder and editor-in-chief of Catnip magazine, said: “Historically, being a cat lady has had an unsettled image, but I think a lot of people are embracing their obsessions in very public ways now, especially online. , receiving a positive response.”
The motifs on the catwalks tap into the “cuteness” trend, a subversive phenomenon currently on display at Somerset House in London. Fluffy cats with wide piercing eyes capture the aesthetic. Polly, Stanley Kubrick’s favorite cat Polly, originally painted by his daughter for the creator’s 60th birthday, is the image of a tomcat with gooseberry-colored eyes that Jonathan Anderson used on knitwear and bags huge tote. Burch’s portraits come from German photographer Walter Schels’ Animal Portraits series, while the latest series from The Vampire’s Wife features some anthropomorphised cats from Edwardian artist Louis Wain, a favorite of brand founder Susie Cave.
Of course, this is not the first time that cats have taken an interest in the world of fashion. Everyone from Stella McCartney to Miu Miu has had mouse motifs before. In 2018 the former creative director of Vogue, Grace Coddington, even teamed up with Louis Vuitton on a collection of monogrammed handbags and silk pajamas featuring bright illustrations of her two personas, Blanket and Pumpkin. “There are a lot of catty people in the fashion business. I don’t touch it with cats, because I don’t think cats are catty,” Coddington said in an interview at the time.
But it was the 2023 Met Gala that revealed the first hints of a wider feline takeover. As he celebrated the life of the late Karl Lagerfeld, several guests paid tribute to Choupette, Lagerfeld’s bright sidekick, who rarely left his side. The cat, now 12 years old, accompanied him regularly on his private jet and at mealtimes he was presented with three Goyard dishes, “one for water, one for his little croquette and one for his pâté”.
Although Choupette declined an invitation to attend the red carpet, several stars took inspiration from her. Jared Leto appeared in a giant cat mascot costume while the Doja Cat rapper accessorized his silver Oscar de la Renta dress with an eared hood and cat face prosthesis with flattened rhinarium.
Charbonneau, who launched her Catnip magazine in October as a love letter to her favorite animal, said: “Cats are such interesting, complex creatures, they have been our companions. How can one animal express such elegant qualities, and also be completely ridiculous? There is a lot to unpack.”
