Can you dress in leopard and not look a cougar?

It’s this summer’s wildest celebrity fashion trend, but there’s just one problem for women of a certain age...

FASHION will never change its spots. The two best-selling skirts this summer have been leopard – the £130 Naomi by Realisation Par, and the Jaspre, by Never Fully Dressed. At just £59 you won’t care that come autumn we will all be wearing snakeprint instead.

Myleene Klass and actress Hayley Atwell were the latest to embrace animal print last week, proving, perhaps, that not only are they beautiful, but that they also understand irony.

For the rest of us, though, this print can be heinously tricky to wear, especially if you have a BMI above 12. The spots can become enlarged, to put it politely, making the print more giraffe than cat.

It’s true that leopard spots have swum before our eyes on recent catwalks but we’d all be well advised to keep the inner cougar well restrained. The ‘older maneater’ is not a good look. In fact I’d caution wearing only a domestic moggie amount: a sheer shirt (Topshop has some lovely ones).

And don’t choose a fabric that is too shiny, nor one that is remotely furry: you might just get splattered in red paint by animal rights protesters…

The birth of leopard-print as a fashion statement can be traced all the way back to 2010, when Marc Jacobs, wag that he is, decided to sell leopard-print scarves for £800-plus. The joke, it seems, was on us. But can these celebrities carry off the look – or has this year’s leopard-mania simply left them looking plain dotty?

This is more duvet than dress – or has someone put the tiny star on a hot wash? This is too sack-like. A shirtwaister needs a detail such as a belt or sequins She may appear glum but her look is sharpened by the jacket BEYONCÉ This could easily be seen as overkill but she manages to look really, really sexy MYLEENE KLASS LADY GAGA HAYLEY ATWELL DEMI MOORE Too gothic and floaty for my taste – she looks as if she would eat you alive, too...

Severe yet sexy. So cat-like, I’m tempted to place a bowl of Whiskas at her paws George’s wife before she came to her senses – she kept the coat plain but it doesn’t go She knows she looks silly in this playsuit, but at least it is worn with humour The Raquel Welch in One Million Years BC look. Dress looks like a tablecloth and is too shiny CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN JENNIFER LOPEZ AMAL CLOONEY BELLA HADID GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE The Game Of Thrones star is a fan of many styles – pity she wants to wear them all at once An itsy-bitsy success. Big cat spots on swimwear are not overwhelming GEORGIA TOFFOLO The I’m A Celeb winner shows how to do it – on a blouse, and it’s sheer, too LIZ HURLEY