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Loving Diane von Furstenberg’s leopard print

— by Alyson Walsh

Photo: Acielle at Style du Monde

Wenda Parkinson in a leopard print coat and cloche hat, American Vogue 1949. Keith Richards in a women’s leopard print jacket, striped t-shirt and bow tie, after a gig in 1974. Giovanna Battaglia Englebert in a Diane von Furstenberg leopard print wrap dress, New York Fashion Week 2017. These are my top three leopard-loving moments.

Last year, Jonathan Saunders was hired by Diane von Furstenberg to whoop things up at the 45-year-old label and he’s done a brilliant job. The colours, the prints, everything looks wonderful. (In the This IS My Style feature, boutique owner Kate Evans wore a couple of lovely, eye-catching DVF pieces). ‘I wanted the focus to comeback to the product, while respecting how it had been used to vocalise certain messages for the empowerment of women,’ the Glaswegian designer told the Telegraph’s ST Fashion magazine. Having wound up his own label Saunders wasn’t planning on working in fashion, he wanted to focus on his furniture line and definitely wasn’t looking to move to New York. But then he was approached and wooed by Diane von Furstenberg:

‘She was looking for someone respectful of what had been created but strong enough to do it in a new way,’ Saunders tells out-going fashion features writer Kate Finnigan, ‘Diane is extremely intelligent and eloquent and also – extremely flirtatious. I went in for a 15-minute meeting and by the end of it I was draped over a sofa agreeing to anything. It was all quite fabulous.’

When he’s back in London the Glaswegian heads to the east end for ‘grub and lager.’ I like his style, too.

 

More delightful DVF:

 

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Wenda Parkinson in a leopard print coat and cloche hat, American Vogue 1949. Keith Richards in a women’s leopard print jacket, striped t-shirt and bow tie, after a gig in 1974.