New York ? The Metropolitan Museum of Art, home of intricate Roman busts, classic 18th-century French furniture and stately presidential portraits, unleashes its wild side with a new exhibit that prominently displays a crudely sewn leather-and-shearling bikini, leopard-print cat suits and feather-covered costumes worthy of a Las Vegas showgirl.

“Wild: Fashion Untamed” at the Costume Institute traces how clothing made with animal skins, furs and man-made fabrics printed with tiger stripes have influenced fashion since women first began stenciling leopard spots onto their unbleached linen sheaths in ancient Egypt.

Through the centuries, both men and women embraced animal-inspired styles, especially as a sign of wealth, explains Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute associate curator overseeing the exhibit. Women, however, have worn such garments to portray themselves as hunters and predators, coquettes and femmes fatales.

There’s something innately sexy about felines (“Wild” features the black leather second skin that Michelle Pfeiffer wore in “Batman Returns”), and there’s an intimate association between fur and fetishism, according to Bolton.

A 1971 fur collection by Yves Saint Laurent based on prostitutes was considered “the tour de force of bad taste,” he says, but it resonated with some fashionistas nonetheless. The collection is represented in the exhibit with a green fur minicoat that has become known as “the happy hooker look.”

“Animal prints give the wearer explicit exoticism and implicit eroticism,” Bolton says. “The ideas and ideals for wearing prints and furs are different for women and men, but the intentions are about the same: They’re showing off.”

Garments embellished with feathers in white or pastels, such as the beige silk organdy dress covered with rooster and bird of paradise feathers by YSL from 1969, send a more subtle message because the light colors and softness of the look suggest innocence, while the animation of the feathers are a tease.

Italian designer Roberto Cavalli is a sponsor of the exhibit, and he contributed seven outfits, including a skimpy zebra bikini and a stunning strapless gown from 2003 made of pink ostrich feathers and silver beads on beige mesh. He says that animal-themed clothing always have a place in his collection because women feel sexy in them.

“I love animal prints, but I like to call them dresses of animals; I copy the dress of a tiger,” Cavalli says.