What does “second skin” mean to you? Throughout fashion history designers have incorporated animalism in their clothes with varying degrees of literalism – from cavemen’s pelts to Dolce & Gabbana’s leopard print bustiers. This season, the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art explores fur and feathers (and faux versions of both) in the exhibit “Wild: Fashion Untamed,” opening next week.

The exhibit will include more than 100 costumes and accessories from diverse sources, ranging from the very proper House of Worth to racy Roberto Cavalli (who is a sponsor). In a season when mink capes and fox stoles are once again the rage, “Wild” seems particularly fitting. Along with coats by Dior, Fendi, and Gucci, the curators will include fake furs and consider the sometimes controversial advertising campaigns of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

But the looks on display aren’t just for the ladies – a somewhat dubious description of men in fur in the museum’s press release states: “Today, the fur coat is not only a symbol of wealth and status, but of virility, machismo, and male dominance,” pointing to “pimp style, with its blatant display of sexual and economic power.”

In fashion and elsewhere, women have been linked or likened to birds, cats, and snakes. The show will explore the psychology behind both the humorous interpretations of woman-as-wild-animal (from the likes of Elsa Schiaparelli and Philip Treacy) as well as the darker, sexualized designs of Jean Paul Gaultier and Thierry Mugler, and references to the myths of Medusa or the Sirens.

“WILD: Fashion Untamed,” December 7 through March 13 at the Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum, 1000 Fifth Ave., 212-535-7710, www.metmuseum.org.