On The

By J.D. Reed

It's a jungle out there. On the Via Veneto, across 57th Street or up Michigan Avenue, animals that look strangely like women are prancing in herds, and spots swim before the eyes. The designs the women are wearing are not the real thing, of course, but thick faux furs and diaphanous fabric in sexy, primitive patterns. And the customers cannot seem to get enough of them: they're snapping up zebra-stripe blazers, panther-print pumps, fake tiger coats, imitation ocelot boleros and giraffe pants. Says a spokesman for Paris' Dorothee Bis: "It's the theme of the year."

It's more like a craze, and one that comes as somewhat of a surprise out on the street. Although couturiers like Yves Saint Laurent have used animal prints for years in subtle and expensive ways, jungle patterns, with their hint of sensual mystery and animal sexuality, have mostly been associated with the showier side of show biz; the imitable Zsa Zsa, for example, recently turned up in a Beverly Hills courtroom wearing a vast spotted-print number. To be sure, it has always been O.K. for mainstream dreamers to be tigresses in private: catty underwear remains a steady seller. Now, after a drab decade of swathing for success in somber tones, slender stripes and severe lines, it seems that women are once again letting part of it, at least, hang out in pseudo-animal skins that have a kind of tacky charm -- or, as Bruce Binder, Macy's Northeast Fashion Director, puts it, "vulgar chic."

The look has clawed its way to the top for reasons topical and technological. For one thing, a decade ago fake-fur coats were lumpy modacrylic numbers that clever designers dismissed as "mama coats," garments that conservative women bought to keep out the cold. Now refined techniques allow realistic animal patterns to be printed on more vibrant and active fabrics, such as Lycra, stretch velour and even sheer silk mousseline.

For another thing, the animal-rights movement, having attacked the fashion industry for its use of real animal skins, has, in part, boosted the new fad by encouraging designers to play with the unreal thing in their lines. Designer Christian Lacroix's fringed panther-print polymid shawl ($470) is hot stuff. Patrick Kelly has scored with skinny dresses in leopard stretch velvet ($340), and even purist Giorgio Armani uses mock lynx for a duffle coat in the Emporio Armani line ($685). After dark, the more the merrier seems to be the rule. Says Annie Allanche, a manager at Paris' Irie boutique: "Women are mixing leopard, tiger, giraffe and ocelot for evening."

Accessories in spots and stripes are big items as well. Marshall Field's in Chicago has a ponytail garter ($8) and a leopard-spotted headband ($10). At New York City's Saks Fifth Avenue a cheetah chiffon bow ($25 to $45) and a jaguar belt ($165) are moving well. Kids can get jungle-cat skirts ($30) and flannel dresses ($55) at Henri Bendel in Manhattan.

Still, some clothiers are pussyfooting around the trend. In what may be a new high (or low) in fashion irony, Milan's Gianfranco Ferre is selling a real rabbit fur jacket for about $2,700. But it has been printed to look like leopard. It's hard for some of these cats to change their spots.

With reporting by Tam Martinides Gray/New York and Tala Skari/Paris