We bought a zoo

Over the course of three short seasons, I’ve witnessed my wardrobe, once an oasis of plaids, stripes and solids, overrun by prints of a less preppy persuasion. Tropical, Native American and Aztec patterns found their way into the jumble last year, thanks to my unhealthy fascination with the British band Friendly Fires and their album “Pala”; now a trove of vintage ‘80s paisley and early ‘90s florals, hand-me-downs from my parents, has jumped into the fray. The borderline gaudiness was exactly what I needed to get myself out of the style cul-de-sac I was wedged into, making me feel as though I were English model Jake Shortall in those spring-summer Topman ads.           

But just as I was becoming cozy with the idea of looking as if I were dressed by a partially blind stylist, the fashion gods have come up with yet another outrageous idea: animals. Not animal prints, but animal likenesses. The men’s fall 2012 collections in Milan were chock-full of critters — an eagle on a white scarf at Etro, a fox on a shirt at Burberry — reminding editors, buyers and bloggers that the high fashion industry was, and will always be, one giant zoo. 

Jumping the shark: UK rapper Tinie Tempah in a shirt from Givenchy’s pre-fall winter 2012 collection. Angelo Pennetta for Mr. Porter

Going Ape

While Raf Simons’ whales, fish and dinosaurs at Jil Sander — they wouldn’t look out of place on children’s pajamas — proved to be the quirky counterpoint to an otherwise menacing black rubber runway, it was an item by Andrea Pompilio that made me, quite fittingly, go ape. The Italian up-and-comer, winner of last season’s “Who’s On Next” award at Pitti Uomo in Florence, had the cheek to include painted images of Cheetah, Tarzan’s late simian sidekick, as shirt fronts. The recurring visual motif was friendly and definitely less feral-looking than Christopher Kane’s famed gorilla-inspired tees from spring-summer 2009. I’ve never wanted something so silly so bad! Me gusta mucho.

I imagine that my narcotic yearning is similar to what Riccardo Tisci’s devotees experienced when he unleashed his fall-winter 2011 Rottweiler collection. From rabid dogs, the Givenchy designer has moved on to scary sharks for pre-fall winter 2012, a continuation of an unlikely theme that began three years ago. If you ask me, $520 is a tad too much for an oversized sweatshirt that resembles Jaws merchandise, but then again there should be a rapper out there who’d deem it a straight-up bargain. 

Spirit Animals

Lolcat: If California-born British-trained designer Shaun Samson had his way, young men everywhere would be clad in slides, socks, and baggy shirts with pierced felines on them.

See, if I were to wear my spirit animal on my sleeve I’d make sure it conveyed a positive message. Barbour’s Jackdaw shirt, for instance, features a grouping of fine-feathered friends that evoke John James Audubon’s Birds of America, had the plates gone through generation loss. The ornithological print was created by Edwyn Collins, best known for his hit A Girl Like You from the 1995 coming-of-age film Empire Records. The Scottish musician had a stroke in 2005 and as part of his rehabilitation, he completed these intricate illustrations. Liberty, the long-established department store in London, was so taken by Collins’s studies that it printed them on to fabric for its Liberty Rocks collection, which the British clothing manufacturer then used for spring-summer 2012. The design has since flown off the shelves at Asos, but is still up for grabs at the Barbour site. 

This style species is anything but flighty and the trend appears to have legs. If Shaun Samson had his way, young men everywhere would be clad in slides, socks, and baggy shirts with cats — cats! — on them during spring-summer 2013. As style blog Hypebeast notes, the California-born British-trained newcomer “successfully recalls last millennium’s skateboarding chic with this decade’s detached irony.” I’m all for clothing with an occasional sense of humor, a knowing wink and nudge at pop culture, but I draw the line at felines with pierced ears. When it comes to playful fashion, after all, nothing beats monkey-emblazoned menswear.   

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