Cats Wearing Tights

2013single-topic photo blogclassic

Cats Wearing Tights is a 2013 single-topic Tumblr called Meowfit of The Day, started by Swedish blogger Katja Wulff, who photographed her Siamese cat Gucci posed in stuffed leggings. The blog went viral in early November 2013 after Tastefully Offensive and BuzzFeed picked it up, spawning a week of press coverage across pet and pop-culture blogs.

Overview

Cats Wearing Tights is a single-topic photo blog featuring a Siamese cat named Gucci posed in stuffed leggings and pantyhose, so the cat appears to be a small creature wearing snug human bottoms1. The blog is titled Meowfit of The Day, a pun on the fashion phrase 'outfit of the day.' The concept borrows directly from the earlier Chinese photo fad Dogs Wearing Pantyhose, swapping in a decidedly less thrilled feline model5.

Each image usually places Gucci against ordinary indoor backdrops, with the humor sitting in the strange silhouette of a compact cat body extended by long, awkwardly stuffed pantyhose3. The visual gag reads instantly, which is why the blog worked as a Tumblr rather than a long-form joke.

How It Spread

The blog stayed under the radar until November 2nd, 2013, when Tastefully Offensive published a compilation of Gucci in tights that pulled more than 100,000 Tumblr notes in its first 48 hours4. On November 3rd, BuzzFeed ran a feature titled 'Meet Gucci, The Cat Who Wears Tights,' which pushed the images out to a much wider audience3.

Coverage cascaded the following day. Laughing Squid8, io9, Huffington Post7 and The Daily Dot6 all posted about Wulff's blog within the same 24-hour window on November 4th. Later in the month, E! Online9 and Uproxx10 added their own write-ups, and the phrase 'Meowfit of The Day' started appearing in almost every weekly pet roundup on the pop-culture blog circuit.

How to Use This Meme

Posts typically frame Gucci from the front with the hind legs inserted into stuffed pantyhose or bright leggings, staged like a mock 'outfit of the day' fashion post1. Fans copying the format often pair a bored-looking cat with a solid-color pair of tights and a plain background so the shape of the cat-plus-legwear reads clearly3.

Frequently Asked Questions