A couple of months ago, I bought a JW Anderson mesh top – one I’d been hankering after since I saw it on the AW24 runway. Long-sleeved and tight, it features a reproduction of a painting by Stanley Kubrick’s daughter Katharina. Crucial to this story is the painting’s subject: Kubrick’s favourite cat, Polly.
The purchase wasn’t a one-off. I love cats, from my own grey tabby Dennis Divine to any moggy I happen to see – or chase after – on the street. Cat-themed items are, therefore, a repeat in my wardrobe. See a much-loved pair of Stella McCartney trousers from 2016 with delicate cat drawings, one of which resembles Dennis. An oversized T-shirt with kittens gambolling across the front. A Miu Miu skirt from 2010 with the classic bendy cat print. An Aries hand-painted purple T-shirt with a jumping cat... The list goes on.
If, previously, I had thought of this as merely a sartorial quirk, wearing these clothes now hits differently – thanks to the new prominence of a particular phrase: ‘Childless Cat Lady’. Used in a Tweet by US Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance in a derogatory reference to prominent Democrats in 2021, it resurfaced during the recent election campaign.
The idea of the Childless Cat Lady as an outcast to be mocked has been hard-baked into society for centuries, since cat-owing women were executed for ‘witchcraft’ – read: not conforming to the conventions of the time. It was later used as anti-Suffragette propaganda, and more recently was featured in The Simpsons, with ‘Crazy Cat Lady’ Eleanor Abernathy depicted as a mentally ill hoarder with copious cats attached to her unkempt person.
But we Childless Cat Ladies still aren’t conforming. And with the next US President to be decided this month, the Childless Cat Lady army is mobilising. It got the biggest boost in September, when Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris, signing her Instagram post with the phrase, alongside a picture of her with her own cat, Benjamin Button.
As a Childless Cat Lady, wearing cat-themed clothes feels like a small act of feminist resistance, because I – and many others like me – are politely but firmly pushing back against Vance and all he stands for.
Luckily, cat-themed fashion options abound. See cats on the AW24 runways at Givenchy, Tory Burch and Acne Studios, along with Cece Jewellery, a brand that – should you so desire – can put a portrait of your kitty in a ring or a pendant (Swift has).
There’s also the recently launched Catnip magazine, dedicated to cats and all who love them. Unsurprisingly, editor-in-chief Anja Charbonneau has an impressive collection of cat-related fashion items. “I have two pieces from Miu Miu’s SS10 collection that I found on eBay [and] a pair of cat print satin ballet flats I’ve had for a decade,” she says. “My cat wishlist includes something cat-related from Tsumori Chisato.”
But she is cautious about the idea of cat fashion crossing over into politics. “I don’t love the idea of my favourite animal being associated in any way with [politicians such as Vance], even if it’s supposed to make a statement against them,” she says.
As the US makes its decision between Harris – a champion of reproductive rights, contraception and workplace equality – and Trump, a man who literally has a Wikipedia page dedicated to his sexual misconduct allegations, I understand that wearing cat trousers isn’t going to change much. But it does make me, and probably many other Childless Cat Ladies, feel like we’re on the right side of history.
