‘Cat lady’ couture trend is making felines fashionably cool: ‘Sexy mystique draws people in’
In this dog-eat-dog world, she’s the cat’s meow.
Milan Wheaton isn’t just a New York City fashion influencer. She’s also stylishly influenced.
But the Brooklynite’s wardrobe choices aren’t solely swayed by her fellow aesthetes of the concrete jungle or swank sophisticates across social media.
Instead, her lavish looks are often inspired by her cat.
“Coco is just naturally chic and moves with a cool confidence that demands respect — they have no time for the bulls–t,” Wheaton, 26, a style content creator from Crown Heights, told The Post of her 11-month-old rescue.
“When I’m getting dressed for a night out on the town, I always strive to embody that same bold elegance,” she explained, “that sexy mystique that draws people in, but also tells others to give you the space you deserve.”
And the Gen Zer isn’t the only one whose cat is giving her paws for applause.
In fact, felines are fast becoming the fashionably purrfect centerpieces of the growing “cat lady” couture trend.
On the rise to usurp perky pups as king companions to the posh elite, pusses like Taylor Swift’s Ragdoll, Benjamin Button, who wowed as the megastar’s glam garnish for her Time magazine 2023 Person of The Year cover, or Chip, film director Matthew Vaughn’s Scottish Fold, who stars opposite Bryce Dallas Howard in action blockbuster “Argylle,” are turning the once-loathsome “cat lady” label into a haute honorific.
Fat cats of the fashion world — much like late Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, who regularly spotlighted his beloved Birman, Choupette — are, too, tapping their whiskered pets to strike poses for luxe lenses.
Sarah Jessica Parker, 58, featured her adopted cat, Lotus, as a model for the cutesy bows and baubles of her SJP accessory collection in November. Kim Kardashian, 43, recently employed three white Persians to coquettishly slay alongside Lana Del Rey in the SKIMS Valentine’s Day shop campaign.
Every week, the leading lady of the “Black Panther” franchise, Lupita Nyong’o, 40, flaunts her flossy furry one, Yoyo, to a digital fanbase of more than 11 million under the Instagram hashtag #Caturday.
And a wintertime campaign by Parisian womenswear house Coperni scored a combined 100,000 Instagram likes thanks to the fuzzy tastemakers that graced the ads.
Beneath TikTok’s buzzy #CatLady stamp, topping 230,000 views, fur-baby fashionistas from coast to coast are unapologetically showcasing chichi affinities for felines via their dress.
The kitty-core craze comes on the heels of the newly resurrected interest in leopard-printed finery, a charge led by Hollywood “It” girls such as Jennifer Lopez, Emily Ratajkowski and Rihanna — who sported a fur coat featuring the wild pattern in January.
The snazzy nod to our four-legged friends, too, trails the “Mob Wives” fashion frenzy, which saw debonair divas ditching muted colors and cuts for saucy togs like tiger-centric shifts.
A self-crowned “Cat-fluencer” known online as @ChampagneUnicorns, from Los Angeles, virally stunned cyber fans as she and her pussycat, Pony, donned designer fits inspired by premium imprints such as Chanel, Jacquemus, Versace, Gucci and Prada.
And voguish visionary Caroline Vazzana tells The Post she received abject praise from both virtual and in-person cool cats after rocking a $25 kitten sweater from eBay to the ever-urbane Metropolitan Museum of Art at the top of the year.
“I’ve never been stopped on the street by so many people asking where I got my outfit,” laughed Vazzana, 31.
The pet mom of two cuddly critters, Mia Thermopolis — a 9-year-old Calico named after Anne Hathaway’s character in “The Princess Diaries” — and Fitzgerald, 4, an orange Tabby, says “cat lady couture” is here to stay.
“Incorporating the love you have for your cat into your wardrobe is almost like wearing your heart on your sleeve,” she said. “You get to fashionably honor your connection with them everywhere you go.”
