The secret to wearing leopard print well is to show no fear. Shrug it on in an offhand fashion. Don’t be cowed by its power. A leopard-print coat isn’t just a good match for your party dress, but excellent with jeans and trainers too.

It is a scientifically proven fact that everyone loves a leopard-print coat. When I say scientifically proven, what I mean is, if you go out in a leopard-print coat, I guarantee at least one person will come up to you and say I love your coat.

There is something about a leopard-print coat that draws others toward you, often with the specific intention of letting you know that they, too, are a leopard-print person. In the ranks of lifestyle accessories guaranteed to spark conversation with complete strangers on the street, leopard print is second only to a newborn baby, and considerably less trouble.

The allure of the leopard-print coat is sexual chemistry with clothes on. The love which many women (and it is mostly, though not exclusively, women) have for leopard print is an instinctive, primal attraction. A physical reaction.

That Kim Kardashian’s Skims has collaborated with Dolce & Gabbana on a capsule collection that includes leopard-print undies makes perfect sense, when you think about it, because leopard spots on your sheer knickers allow you to channel that raw leopard energy even when you are nearly naked.

If leopard print does it for you, it is not a rational form of approval. It is dilated pupils, shallow breathing, a faster heartbeat. This is not the cool, considered admiration you feel when you see a well-tailored blazer, a beautifully coiffed updo or a perfectly ironed shirt. It is more visceral than that.

Leopard has a very different mood music to other animal prints. When you wear fake mink, or fake fox, you are cosplaying as a rich lady, just a little bit, whether you admit it or not. But when you wear a leopard’s spots you take on the character of the leopard itself. Faux furs make you look pampered; leopard print makes you look dangerous. You are predator, not prey.

There is something spicily independent-minded about a woman in a leopard-print coat. Leopard makes you look punchy and unpredictable, even when you are in the salad aisle at Sainsbury’s Local. That, my friends, is why it makes for a great coat.

You know what turns out not to be a great coat at all though? The coat I have always thought of as the best leopard-print coat of all time, made by Oleg Cassini for Jackie Kennedy in 1962. Double breasted with six black buttons, and a matching leopard with grosgrain trim, and bracelet-length sleeves worn with black leather elbow-length gloves, it is the perfect balance of elegance and pizzazz.

I have only just discovered this coat wasn’t leopard print at all, but real leopard. And not only were several big cats hunted and skinned for it, but its popularity sparked a spike in demand for leopard-pelt coats which led to unprecedented numbers of the creatures being killed for their skins in the following years.

Cassini himself was so horrified by the scale of slaughter he’d inadvertently unleashed (he talked of 250,000 leopards being killed in the years after his coat) that he became an anti-fur campaigner. Cassini never used real fur again, saying, “After that [coat] I said, ‘I will do my best to redeem myself’.”

This winter, leopard-print coat icons are all around us, and they are neither wearing the real thing nor trying to look like they are. See this cartoonish leopard-print jacquard coat by River Island (£95). Leopard isn’t about being realistic, because leopard has embedded itself too deeply into fashion. So, treat it as a neutral – the leopard evolved to blend in, not to stand out, remember. A leopard coat over a floral dress? Why not. A leopard coat with a tartan scarf? Nothing to be scared of. The natural habitat of leopard, these days, is an urban street. But the rules of the jungle still apply.

Hair and make up: Sophie Higginson using Maria Nila and Dr Sam Bunting. Styling assistant: Sam Deaman. Model: Claudia at Milk. Leopard coat: £95, River Island. Jumper: £65, ASOS. Bodysuit: £32, Next. Jeans: £65, Nobody’s Child. Loafers: £95, Dune London. Earrings: £189, Missoma