The giraffe has fascinated Europe since antiquity, all legs and neck. In 1826 Mehemet Ali resolved to present one to England; it did not survive the journey and died on arrival in London. The coat, however, entered the decorative repertoire alongside the cheetah, the tiger and the zebra, and Giraffe belongs to that lineage — screen printed, and drawn as a skin rather than as an animal, which is why it upholsters as calmly as it does.
