Feline fantasia: why Tiger King is the fiery fashion inspiration nobody knew they needed

Take a walk on the wild side 
1/25
Naomi May18 September 2020

As time remains in strange suspension, the future seems to stretch inexorably before us.

Once we exit our makeshift WFH offices for the day, the next step of the evening seems to lurk ominously over us.

Perhaps you’re opting to cook freshly-cooked meals, or you’re ordering Deliveroo and praying for a dishy driver as a helpless distraction. Maybe you’re immersing yourself in literature and the all-encompassing power of prose, or maybe, just maybe, you’re perusing Netflix in search of an escape.

After all, with a pandemic ravaging broad swaths of the country and social distancing now the new normal, indulging in an escapist series to emulate a semblance of normalcy seems like a nutritional source of TV comfort food.

One particular series, which is undoubtedly escapist, and unabashedly addictive is Netflix’s Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. In fact, so compelling is the seven-part docu-series that within 10 days of it being available to watch online, 34 million of the streaming services’ users had already watched it.

For those who have yet to immerse themselves in the utterly mind-boggling true-crime series, Tiger King, as it’s referred to, tells the tale of a murder for hire reuse which is set between rural Oklahoma and Florida.

It’s the perfect storm of illegality, questionable morals and baby wild animals with a high dose of country music and a sprinkle of polygamy; true voyeurism in its most addictive and luring form.

The protagonist – and serial antagonist - of the show is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, né Schreibvogel, who goes by the name of Joe Exotic. Exotic breeds tigers, presides over what he describes as “my little cult” of drifters and much younger men and ran for governor of Oklahoma in 2018 on a libertarian platform.

He’s a gun-touting, sequin-sporting, fringed fashion-fanatic with a penchant for DIY country music videos and a bleached mullet which resembles another strain of mutant virus in and of itself.

Joe Exotic posing with one of his pet tigers
Netflix

While the show left me scraping my jaw off the floor due to the antic-ridden saga it portrayed, I was left in awe of Exotic’s devotion to a handful of hypnotic sequinned shirts, his kohl-rimmed eyes and a slew of tacky tie-dye tops. The sartorial result was what can only be described as a compelling strain of cowboy-goes-to-a-rave which is unequivocally en vogue.

If, like me, your proclivity to flirting with a feisty animal print has taken on gravity-defying heights since binging Tiger King, it would seem we’re not alone. According to fashion platform Lyst, searches for tiger, leopard and zebra prints have all more than tripled over the last month, with searches for ‘Kenzo Tiger’ – no doubt a reference to the French brand’s iconic tiger sweatshirt - having spiked by 200 per cent since March.

Tiger King also introduces us to Exotic’s nemesis, Carole Baskin, a Floridian animal advocate. She’s the CEO of Big Cat Rescue, a Tampa-based sanctuary dedicated to big cats, and she dresses almost exclusively in wild animal prints — her wardrobe, which she gives a tour of — is an Eton mess of leopard spots and tiger stripes.

Carole giving a tour of her print-filled wardrobe
Netflix

From her leopard luggage to her animal-print shoes, Baskin - who possesses the most mysteriously mellifluous voice - appears to only take a break from her adored feline prints when she dons her second-best accessory of a flower crown, which she pairs with a bohemian kaftan-style top.

While Baskin is undoubtedly the biggest champion of the head-to-toe feline look, animal print is ubiquitous throughout Tiger King. From former drug pins to the safari workers of Florida’s The Institute for Greatly Endangered and Rare Species who are “required” to sport minimalist feline outfits, the fashions are as eye-catching as they are jaw-dropping.

Wild animal prints, which were once the preserve of Eastenders’ stalwart Kat Slater, are no longer the tacky token they once were. In fact, during the spring/summer 2020 shows, animal prints vied for dominance on the catwalks.

Safari workers at Doc Antel's safari park are required to wear skimpy animal print clothing
Netflix

At Balenciaga’s show, Demna Gvasalia sent varying iterations of leopard print down the runway, while at Bottega Veneta during the same season, Daniel Lee introduced accents of tiger print into the brand’s cult-status accessories. For Saint Laurent's spring/summer 2020 show, high octane wild animal prints were interpreted into evening wear, all of which would slot right into Exotic’s repertoire.

Feline fashion has similarly infiltrated a fleet of middle-market brands. Cult-British brand Rixo has incorporated some strain of animal print into all of its collections since the brand’s inception in 2015.

“We consider animal print a classic, we call it a neutral or ‘non-print print’ because it’s really easy-to-wear no matter the time of day or season, it’s versatile enough to pair with other pieces and is also very timeless,” Rixo’s co-founder Orlagh McCloskey ruses. “It never goes out of fashion - it’s a print that our customers can keep in their wardrobe, re-wear and will still be relevant whether they wear now or a few years’ time.”

Balenciaga SS20
IMAXtree

Perhaps when you take a moment to consider the provenance of these prints, and the fact that the characters of Tiger King have dedicated their worlds to breeding, rearing, protecting and working with and for these cats, their stylistic choices ostensibly make more sense.

The only character in the series who takes a break from the feline head-to-toe, style-of-dress is Exotic himself, who exhibits more of a porny cowboy aesthetic. He wears his series of sequinned shirts buttoned to the sternum, his eyes kohl-rimmed and his trousers seemingly sprayed-on, and leather.

In recent years, Exotic’s eye-catching take on a discotheque cowboy has been mirrored by a bevy of stars in the public eye. Lil Nas X has made the country-western aesthetic his sartorial staple since he burst onto the music scene and, in his most notable public appearance at the Grammy’s, sported a Pepto-Bismol pink Versace cowboy ensemble to collect his two gongs.

Cowboy garb was also rocked at the music ceremony in February by prolific producer Diplo and his collaborator, Orville Peck, who both donned their finest yee-haw get-ups for the occasion in Western-inspired ensembles which would be quite at home in Exotic’s collection.

Lil Nas X arriving to the Grammy's in February 2020
Getty Images

Tiger King is an anthropological gem that is in equal parts jarring as it is uncomfortable. Exotic’s chutzpah, Baskin’s omnipresent attitude and the cast’s adoption of the prints whose original owners they are employed to tend to, make for a mesmeric and indulgent watch.

Exotic unfortunately won’t be able to revel in his newly acquired infamy as he’s currently serving 22 years in prison, but the good news is that Orlando Bloom is in talks to play him in the movie adaptation of the story. The only thing better than Exotic’s sartorial choices is Orlando Bloom wearing them.

If all this talk of big, bold and bolshy prints has left you yearning to indulge yourself, look no further than the gallery above.

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