Leopard print is often considered a classic. In fashion, they say it circles back around every few years. My friend Nelli (ex Bergdorf Goodman buyer and one of the smartest people I know) says the cycle is 3 years, to be exact.
noted in one of her recent newsletters that leopard is here to stay after seeing it in the Fall shows. So leopard print is nothing new. But, what’s prompted me to write about it is that in my last few days in Paris (this is pre-fashion week as my newsletter is a little delayed getting out) I saw no less than 80 people wearing leopard print in some shape or form and it felt VERY far outside the ordinary. And this was after being there for 6 weeks, and not noticing any leopard at all. The sightings were so incessant and came on with such vigor that it made me wonder if I was being sent some sort of not so subtle message, such as, after a lifetime of kind of just skipping over leopard print, it was time to take notice.
When I first got to Paris in early January one of the first things I wanted to find was a silk leopard print scarf for the sole purpose of tying it around my neck bandana style and layering my JuJu Vera collar over it. (photo above) Why I had leopard in my mind at that point, I’m not sure. Fast forward to my last week here, I had not found said scarf (I finally ordered 2 on Etsy — this one, this one and this one were the other ones I was considering) but I’m surrounded by people wearing leopard print. It’s also all of a sudden been popping up on my screen repeatedly, most notably, was in one of
’s posts. She styled it in sort of a tomboy way, with layered stripes, men’s trousers and well worn loafers. Pernille Teisbaek integrated the maximalist print seamlessly into her minimalist scandi table top. Grow has a tiger print chair on hold for her new home (at least this is what I’ve gathered from her stories).All of these things made me remember the age old question we would always ask ourselves at Bergdorf Goodman. Where do trends begin? How do they seem to materialize across various groups of people miraculously at the same time? When we were in market (for those who are not familiar, this is what buyers do during fashion week aside from attending shows: they visit brands’ showrooms to view the collections in their entirety and select pieces for whichever store they are buying for) common trends would ALWAYS arise. Every designer would be showing crop tops or pastels or cargo pants. We always wondered, were they all speaking to one another? I can now definitely tell you the answer to that one is no. Were editors whispering in their ears? Were buyers giving too much feedback? How did this always happen?? We even backed up in the design process all the way to the fabric mills at one point and wondered if the people making the fabric were the actual puppeteers? Fully in the background but they were the ones choosing which fabrics to show the designers each season which would then lend themselves to trends. I experienced an anomaly in this vein more recently in my career when I was consulting with two prominent New York designers on upcoming collections and they were BOTH sending me the same instagram account. It was an account of quite a small following of a woman applying a very specific technique to fabric. Why were they both interested in this very niche fabrication? What were the odds? Was the algorithm choosing trends?? My job was to give them my honest opinion on if I liked it and if my intuition said this would be successfully integrated in a number of creative ways into their upcoming collection. But I also felt an obligation to not let them both proceed with it. Because in contrast to what trends infer, designers do not want to be one of many, they want to maintain their clear individuality and creative vision unencumbered by what their counterparts are doing. At least this is my experience with the true creative geniuses I have had the pleasure of working with. So, what was I to do? Do I sway one of them in another direction? Was I the puppeteer??
Back to leopard print. I think the reason I’m devoting a whole post to it is because I have never until now, really embraced it. I bought it for years from different brands for BG, I appreciated it on many people but I believe the only animal print anything I ever owned was a pair of daintily pointed suede tiger print Isabel Marant pumps circa 2013 a leopard print bra which I really love and a vintage leopard print fur hat.
All of a sudden though, finally, through all the cycles of leopard print in my fashion life, I’m finally starting to desire it for myself and in more ways than the silk print scarf I set off to find in Paris initially. Below I’ve moodboarded all of the ways I think leopard (or rather, animal print, I’m lumping them all together) has been done really well, because in my opinion it can easily go very wrong. I’ve also put together a shop of all of my favorite animal print pieces across the internet, old and new and not limited to clothing and accessories.
How I’m thinking about leopard print:
Pairing it with turquoise jewelry.
Styling it with preppy & boyish items such as stripes, oversized blazers, riding boots.
Adding a pop of red.
Layering it with lots of rich chocolate browns.
Mixing it with ladylike, classic, items such as ballet flats & pearls.
A full leopard coat is a long term investment piece.
Leopard on leopard. Wearing more than one leopard piece at a time.
An animal print home item is very enticing.
See some of these ideas below and also how you can string a few of the points together in one look. Shop my entire animal print edit here. (All items below are in the shop plus more)
What you said is so true and I feel the same way about snake print! I’ve seen it for years and every time it pops up again in a new trend cycle I warm up to it a bit more 🐍
Very inspiring!! Love it!!