Animal prints and skins made a strong appearance at the Spring 2005 Ready - to -Wear collections in Milan. Much of the fashion was influenced by Africa. From python, zebra, leopard print and feathers at Dolce and Gabbana to hippie skirts and fur-trimmed coral encrusted evening wear at Roberto Cavalli.

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana?s collection at Dolce & Gabbana showed an entire collection of python starting with Naomi Campbell in a python corset dress and moving on to trench coats, jeans and evening gowns. Accessories focused on feathers swinging from boots, bangles and belt loops.

Cavalli trimmed the shoulders and neckline of a fantastic printed floor length in fur and showed a poncho crocheted from fur. And like Dolce and Gabbana, everything else on the catwalk seemed to be trimmed in feathers.

And for chilly Spring evenings, Christian Lacroix for Emilio Pucci showed a brilliant purple fur bolero style shrug worn over a multicolored purple and orange floor length dress and several colorful dresses were, guessed it, dressed with feathers!

Karl Lagerfeld gave Fendi the usually fur treatment with wearable and beautiful multicolored fluffy cardigans and deluxe hippie style perforated-fur vests.

If you connect the dots, it draws a haphazard picture of hippies, fur and Africa. This might take a while to visualize, but the main point is that furs are being retextured and adapted to the new global styles for wearing year round. The take away message: think fur-lite for spring.