When the weather’s bleak and cold, and all you feel like doing is curling up at home or going back to bed, it’s not very likely that you’ll be feeling fierce. But with the fashion jungle prowling through the trends list this season, you can let your clothes do the roaring!

Spotted mainly in textured outerwear and in fur or pony hair, the trend of leopard print, cheetah spots and zebra stripes have added some ferociousness to this exhausting and sleepy season.

However glamorous the queen of the jungle may seem, you may be wondering how to pull this look off without looking too trashy.  With these handy do’s and don’ts, you’ll be the classiest cat this winter:

1. DO keep it minimal. Try matching a white shirt with a pencil skirt of your choice and glamming it up with a tiger print shoulder bag. Not too brash but still a sophisticated and fierce look.

2. Do approach animal print fur coats with caution. If done badly, this take on the trend could look cheap. Unless the fur is excellent quality, exquisitely styled and matched with the right accessories, you can end up looking like rainforest road kill.

3. DON’T wear too much of the same print. If you’re going to try a look that involves several animal prints, try to vary them. It’s unlikely that if you buy a zebra print bag from H&M and a pair of zebra print trousers from Urban Outfitters that the prints will go at all. It’s much safer and far more stylish to wear a variety of alternating prints within different parts of the outfit.

4. Finally, DO have confidence! This look can only be pulled off if you radiate the same confidence. If you’re shy about it then this look won’t work- a lion without a roar is barely a lion at all.

With these helpful animal print tips, you’ll surely be the chicest of the species.

Adam Leach