BY NABANITA DUTT

It’s a menagerie out there in the fashion world these days, with stylized, graphic animals adding cuteness and whimsy to the usual stock of stripes, checks and dotted prints. Last year, it was the wise owl and playful giraffes and elephants wrapping their long necks and trunks around clothes, accessories and home goods. This year, it is the long-legged flamingo.

The tropical, friendly bird is just in time for summer, bringing cheerfulness and the charm of its sweet pink color to your home and wardrobe, no matter how far north of the equator you are.

“Flamingos are the new lingo,” says Marc Jacobs about his Spring/Summer 2015 menswear collection that is liberally populated with feathers and graceful silhouettes of the bird. Flamingo’s influence has also spread with the rendition of its peachy-pink color in other designer roll-calls: such as Versace and Calvin Klein where color samples have been picked from the flamingo’s ombre variation of feathers. Bottega Veneta is showcasing its bags, shoes and leather accessories in a warm, peach pastel they are calling `flamingo’ and even the classic red is sporting a brand new moniker — `flamingo red’ — in deference to the fashion’s current obsession with the bird.

Here at Bodmin Magazine, we have selected the season’s best interpretations of the flamingo inspiration to get your own summer styling off to a flying start.