When I was young (and I’ll grant you, this was a long time ago) people sometimes wore real fur coats, including leopard skin – although even then, many viewed this profligacy with horror. A lot more people carried bags made to look like faux leopard and tiger skin, but this was just seen as desperately down market, and viewed with pity.

Nowadays, it is de rigueur for even the classiest of venues for women’s (and men’s) clothing to offer clothing in animal prints and camouflage … even such minimalist sites as Planet by Lauren G. (Lauren Grossman) sport leopard and camo print sweaters.

Ick, sez I.

I don’t understand what style chord is plucked by wearing what soldiers wear to blend in with terrain during wartime. Is it meant to make the wearer look semi-tough? What is the statement?

And sure, yes, one hundred percent it’s better to wear a print that mimics an animal skin than to wear a real animal skin … but what’s that about? Is it meant to suggest the wearer is an animal, earthy and sexy and feline? Is it meant to suggest that the wearer is a hunter?

Thinking about this, of course, may be going too deep into shallow waters. After all, when I was a young kid in the 1960s, people wore fabrics printed with geometric shapes and lightning bolts and ABC’s. Paisley, which I have never understood, was a big thing (and now paisley is, lamentably, back …).

True enough, I’m not a really big fan of print fabric. Daisies and little kitties make me want to run away screaming. Ditto most stars and … please … all hearts. A piece of clothing with a logo or company name of any kind has to be a real stunner to rope me in.

Once I wrote that I would never again wear a dress, for reasons that had to do with gender parity and the patriarchy; but I have since repented that vow and do sometimes put on a frock of sorts (although not the kind with a fabric-covered belt and a Peter Pan collar). But never will I ever on this earth wear an animal print or camo. – JM