As much as we like to blend in, we cannot deny our individuality, like it or not. Case in point, fingerprints! No two people have the same digit patterns. And let’s not assume that the rest of the animal world is any different.

Have you ever thought about the real animal patterns behind our favorite animal prints? They too are unique, one animal’s markings never identical to other members of the group; though to us they may seem to match.

Close-up Jaguar pattern, Brazil

Close-up Jaguar pattern, Belize

Fur fashion knows a good thing when it sees it, and also knows how to work it. Today, patterns from the glorious hand of nature can be as creative as they are popular when evolved into prints or stencils.

Caroline Charles | Fall 2011-Winter 2012 Collection

Close-up Leopard pattern

Dolce e Gabbana | Fall 2011-Winter 2012 Collection

Close-up Tiger pattern

What would so many designers like Roberto Cavalli or Dolce e Gabbana, Yves Saint Laurent or Christian Dior, be without Leopard print? Or is it really Jaguar? Civet? Ocelot? Another feline? Yes my friends, we’ve been so desensitized to read said pattern that we forget its true form.

Rochas | Fall 2011-Winter 2012 Collection

And frankly, I like it that way. The Cat’s Meow is in its platonic abstraction, which in turn makes for wonderful fashion recreations. Designers are truly embracing the idea this season. You want leopard? -you get a super-version, one made out of other furs like lamb and fox to create a truly original and fun fur piece. A note here: The fur industry does not and can not use endangered species. But the industry has become adept at reproducing close facsimiles.

Fendi | Fall 2011-Winter 2012 Collection

Junya Watanabe | Fall 2011-Winter 2012 Collection

Fendi | Fall 2011-Winter 2012 Collection

Let’s not forget that these patterns initially serve as camouflage. Just look at peacocks and pheasants where the females blend into the landscape while the males, well, they puff up their chests and strut their stuff and are the first ones to go!

Peacock courting peahen

Others, like the zebra, are nature’s use of optical illusion to offset predators during a chase. Think of them as nature’s Op Art. Nature works in mysterious ways, and very often in an awesome display of colors and patterns.

Burchell's Zebra (Equus burchellii) pattern, Kenya

Blaze - Study by Bridget Riley (1962)

Bridget Riley, one of Britain's most successful and well known contemporary artists

More recently, Jaguar mink is being embraced, even duplicated with longer furs. Burberry simply can not get enough of that whimsical, yet natural “cow pattern.”

Burberry

Burberry | Fall 2011/Winter 2012 Collection

What are your favorite animal print patterns?