Suzanne Carillo

Cougar Style & Why You Need It

I know quite a few well experienced women avoid wearing animal prints. Heck, we’re being told women over 30! (seriously?) should avoid it.

Why?

It looks fabulous on older women!

In fact, I didn’t wear animal prints until after I turned 40.

My favourite example of a gorgeous woman wearing animals prints is the incredible Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate.

She wore animal prints in every scene. She was in fact, the first female “cougar” pre-dating the term commonly used today, describing a woman that prefers dating younger men. Her character in the film is predatory in nature and supremely confident.  She knows what she wants and she isn’t afraid to go after it, regardless of her age.

She has amazing cougar style.

While researching the term “cougars” for this post I stumbled across this on WikiHow, “How to Know if a Woman is a Cougar”

“Pay attention to her self-confidence. In general, the older a woman gets, the better she knows herself and what she likes, and the more confident she becomes.

Some signs that she is confident:
Good posture: whether sitting or standing, a person with good self-confidence will likely have a straight back and a head that is well-balanced on the neck, with the chin pointed neither too high nor too low.
Relaxed: a person with good self-confidence will likely seem relaxed in most situations, perhaps looking around the room with an easy smile, or just seeming generally calm and at peace with herself. She won’t be very fidgety.
Eye contact: confident people make eye contact and maintain it in social interactions. That said, there’s a difference between maintaining eye contact and staring intimidatingly at someone: looking someone in the eye roughly 60% of the time you are talking to them is a good rule of thumb.”

I quite like the fact that a cougar is described as a very confident woman. Nothing wrong with that.

I have been searching for a Mrs. Robinson – cougar style coat for years now. I stumbled across this one while thrifting a few weeks back and have been wearing it often.  A swing coat with an undefined waist isn’t normally my style, but I’m loving the added warmth and freedom of a larger coat.

And yeah, I feel pretty damn confident when I wear it.

The fringe boots were also thrifted the same week.

I’m still trying to decide if they are keepers. They might be 1″ too high for my sensitive feet.

A shame though since they are seriously fierce.

When I tried them on at Talize two women came up to me and told me I had to buy them. Funny how that always seems to influence me.

I don’t even need to have my enabling friends around!

I manage to find complete strangers that are enablers.

#truestory

#pugspotting

Zoë always wants to get in on the action.

This coat is vintage, made in Montreal. I think it is 1960’s-1970’s. I moved the buttons on the coat about seven inches over so it fit better when closed. It is lined in a glorious burnt orange colour, very close to the colour of my hair.

#madeforme

Here are some other ways I’ve worn cougar style or animal prints.

Do we automatically assume an older woman wearing animal prints is a cougar on the prowl?

Is that why women over thirty aren’t supposed to wear them?

Are women wearing animal prints deemed too confident, too sexy, too powerful?

Are people threatened?

How do you feel about cougar style or wearing animal prints?

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