All kittied out: fashion goes cat crazy as cuteness trend takes hold

Cat versus dog. It’s a feud as old as time. But in fashion at least, felines are purring ahead in the popularity stakes. The model Claudia Schiffer attended the London premiere of Argylle on Wednesday night with her cat, Chip, in a custom backpack complete with clear plastic dome to ensure photographers captured the Scottish fold’s best angles. 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 also has his own dedicated Instagram account (14,000 followers and counting). This week Chip launched a “paw-tobiography”, an illustrated book charting how he escaped “a supermodel’s shadow”.

Last week when the singer Lana Del Rey was unveiled as the star of a new campaign for Kim Kardashian’s shapewear brand Skims, it was the image of Del Rey pouting seductively while three white cats look on insouciantly that went viral.

It’s not just real cats that have slunk their way into the spotlight. At the menswear shows in Milan and Paris this month, cat motifs prowled down the catwalks at JW Anderson and Givenchy, while the American fashion designer Tory Burch unveiled a pop-up store in LA complete with giant photographs of hissing cats. Burch has used the same feline prints on wide-legged trousers and T-shirts. Elsewhere, Acne Studios showed a long-sleeved top starring a white cat with giant blue eyes, very similar to the one that sat on Blofeld’s lap in James Bond.

Fashion’s exaggerated endorsement of ailurophiles hints that the “crazy cat lady” trope, which for generations has dug its claws into contemporary culture, might finally be over – or at least reclaimed. In December for her Time person of the year cover, Taylor Swift draped one of her three cats, a ragdoll named Benjamin Button, over her shoulders. Even Carrie Bradshaw toyed with the archetype in the final series of And Just Like That when she brought home a rescue kitten, which she named Shoe. On TikTok, the hashtag CrazyCatLady has more than 230,000 posts, many featuring young people introducing their cats to the camera.

Anja Charbonneau, the founder and editor-in-chief of the magazine Catnip, said: “Being a cat lady historically comes with an unflattering image, but I think a lot of people are embracing their obsessions in very public ways right now, especially online, and being met with a positive response.”

The motifs on the catwalks also play into the “cuteness” trend, a subversive phenomenon currently the subject of an exhibition at Somerset House in London. Fluffy cats with piercing wide eyes capture the aesthetic. The image of a tortoiseshell cat with its gooseberry-coloured eyes used by Jonathan Anderson on knitwear and giant tote bags is of Stanley Kubrick’s favourite cat, Polly, originally painted by his daughter for the film-maker’s 60th birthday. Burch’s portraits come from the German photographer Walter Schels’ Animal Portrait series, while the latest lineup from The Vampire’s Wife features several anthropomorphised cats from the Edwardian artist Louis Wain, a favourite of the brand’s founder, Susie Cave.

Of course, this isn’t the first time cats have fascinated the fashion world. Everyone from Stella McCartney to Miu Miu have previously toyed with mouser motifs. In 2018 the former Vogue creative director Grace Coddington even teamed up with Louis Vuitton on a collection of monogrammed handbags and silk pyjamas featuring whimsical illustrations of her two persians, Blanket and Pumpkin. “There’s plenty of catty people in the fashion business. I don’t relate it to 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. Celebrating the life of the late Karl Lagerfeld, several guests paid homage to Choupette, Lagerfeld’s beloved white birman, who rarely left his side. The cat, now aged 12, regularly accompanied him on his private jet and at mealtimes was presented with three Goyard dishes, “one for water, one for her little croquette and one for her paté”.

While Choupette turned down an invitation to attend the red carpet, several stars took inspiration from her. Jared Leto appeared in a giant cat mascot suit while the rapper Doja Cat accessorised her silver, beaded Oscar de la Renta gown with a cat-eared hood and cat-face prosthetic complete with a flattened rhinarium.

Charbonneau, whose magazine Catnip launched in October as a love letter to her favourite animal, said: “Cats are such fascinating, complicated creatures, ones who’ve been our companions for eons. How can one animal express such elegant qualities, while also being completely ridiculous? There’s a lot to unpack.”