If a camel is horse designed by committee, then a zebra is a horse designed by someone with a lot of pent-up creative energy. Is there another pattern –or anything– in nature as exuberant, as extroverted, or as obvious, as zebra skin? What Darwinian advantage, precisely, do these stripes confer? They make the zebra the most fabulous, and conspicuous, animal.
The new Michael Kors flagship on Madison Avenue in New York, which opened just last week, is a glowing, gleaming temple to modern American glamor. There are glass stairs, floating stainless steel railings, and a giant plasma video screen playing an endless loop of the designer’s Spring runway show. There are also zebra-patterned carpets. (Most likely they’re dyed and printed cowhide, which is, for whatever reason, less offensive than zebra.) The zebra skins evoke safari, certainly, but also Op Art, punk fashion, and Rorschach blots. They’re the perfect jolt of warm-blooded energy.