Tuesday, March 19Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Jungle in The Highstreet

Trees are becoming bare and Jack Frost starts to paint the grass icy white most mornings. Winter is coming! Hands and noses will turn blue and the inevitable debate of when to turn on the heating is drawing close. However, lurking in the shadows is an exotic jungle of stripes and spots bringing a touch more reminiscent of Kenya and Zambia to glacial city streets across Europe. The surmounting fur coats and animal prints of the past few years have indisputably invaded the high-street.

It started with the likes of Alexa Chung’s classic Chelsea boot and Nicole Richie’s fabulous fur coat; Leopard print is an a-list love that has inevitably spread to stores of every cliental. Even in Egham high street ‘The British Heart Foundation’ has Zebra print gloves on display. Recent fashion weeks all over Europe; London, Milan and Paris have prepared us for the polar climate of October and November. Fake fur coats are set to be a major designer and high street trend this season, and many spectators braved the heat sporting their faux. However, the new fake furs are more Sesame Street than Footballer’s wives with crazy colours and boxy shapes. Not forgetting the increase of prints, in London Kate Moss wore a pair of black leopard print Hysteric Glamour jeans when she sat in the front row of Topshop’s show. Then in Paris, Karlie Kloss donned a leopard print dress with thigh high split at the Balmain after party. Fashion weeks were more wilderness than metropolis.

This animal theme should certainly keep us warm through the next few months, whilst also injecting rumbles and vigour into the frozen streets of England. Who wouldn’t feel glamorous by spicing up those navys, blacks and greys with dash of tiger or smear of zebra print? Who could resist making a statement with a bright fur coat or cosy fuzzy gilet? This winter we should unfreeze with the help of the jungle.