Clockwise, from top left: Just Cavalli, Louis Vuitton, Alexander McQueen, Lanvin, Prada, Bernhard Willhelm , Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen.
Zebras, tigers, snakes, and birds are all over the Spring 09 Runways. Maybe we’re tired of being people, with all our worries, watching all those other people steal, mud-sling, and lie. Maybe it’s a good time to escape, get in touch with our animal nature, frolic in the woods, hunt our own dinner, and roar. For the cougar in everyone, here are some inventive takes on the animal skin.

From Style.com’s Sarah Mower: “Alexander McQueen, environmentalist? That was the unexpected message that emanated from the mouth of a runway that was backed by a video projection of a revolving Earth, and flanked by a zoo of stuffed animals: an elephant, giraffe, polar bear, lion, and assorted other endangered species. McQueen explained, through program notes, that he had been pondering Charles Darwin, the survival of the fittest, and the deleterious results of industrialization on the natural world.” –Claudia