Fashion may have gone tribal this summer with animal print making a splash in our wardrobes but don’t expect to see Coronation Street’s latest landlady loving the leopards.

As revealed in the MEN yesterday former EastEnders star, Michelle Collins, who will appear in Corrie for the first time next week, says her character’s wardrobe will be a leopard print and leopard skin-free zone.

Feisty Stella Price (played by Michelle) will be smart and stylish – not adjectives associated with landladies of the past, due to their penchant for loud prints.

We only need to look back at the Rovers landladies’ fashion back catalogue to see that most have had a real problem with this tricky trend and look like another animal – mutton dressed as lamb.

Bet Gilroy (Julie Goodyear) was the archetypal lover of leopard print, it was her trademark but it was never really a good look despite the fact that the print and the mad earrings attracted a cult following.

But she fared slightly better than would-be glamour puss Liz McDonald (Beverley Callard), whose dodgy dress sense reached new heights – or should we say lows – when she went animal print a-go-go.

Shelley Unwin (Sally Lindsay), a younger Rovers manager, should have fared better being a younger follower of the trend but as we can see here, it did her no favours either.

Thank goodness Michelle is destined to bring a touch of class to the Rovers bar as even the young’uns like Tina Malone (Michelle Keegan) and Becky McDonald (Katherine Kelly) have been totally lacking in that department.

Stella will wear sky-scraper heels and her outfits will be high-street smart and sexy with a nod towards the latest trends without being a slave to them. Think Zara – Michelle was recently spotted stepping out of the store with the Corrie costume designer.

But in real life Michelle isn’t averse to a touch of the old animal magic. She was seen wearing a stylish leopard print blouse when she was in Bolton recently appearing in the play, Demolition Man. Now that’s the way to do it, landladies!

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