Release the inner wild in you with this season’s animal magic trend. Released from its bright confines from last season; for spring/summer it’s all about embracing the natural side of animal prints. Think rich browns, ochres and hints of gold in your leopard print. And go as big or as little as you like.
WHAT: We love the idea of bringing the wild of nature into our clothes. To tap into that animalistic, primal instinct, or just to embody the beauty and diversity of nature around us. It’s about tapping into the exotic and mysterious, the glorious past and intrepreting the future. Animal prints evoke a lot of emotion in us by the memories they conjure. It’s also a trend, that seems to give a surprising amount of creativity to the designers. That’s why animal prints are so popular and they’re not going away anytime soon. So, if you went out in the autumn and bought a tonne of animal print wear; you’re in luck. It’s not gone out of fashion yet!
In a way it’s actually quite surprising how enduring this trend has been now for several years. At first it arrived and seemed too brash, too bold and eighties to live for very long. But here we are, almost three years later with the trend still not having died out. The designers just reinvent it every season. For autumn/winter 2018 it was all about coloured leopard print and white snake-skin print boots. This season we’ve gone back to the more natural colour of animal prints, and our obsession with two animal prints has broadened considerably. Now it’s also about zebra, giraffe and crocodile print.
WHO: It has appears in some aspect on the runways of designers as diverse as Nicole Miller, Tom Ford, R13, Rochas, Burberry, Gucci, Calvin Klein and Richard Quinn. No matter how ubiquitous it may be; designers are still inspired by the print.
HOW: In a way it has become the new neutral; wear under a large parka, use accents of it in the form of a leopard-print bag or scarf, or clash your prints as much as possible. The options are almost limitless and allows a lot of creativity and freedom in how you dress and what you’re comfortable wearing. You can wear a head-to-toe leopard print dress, or only wear a printed shirt under a jumper. Another cute alternative is to go for animal print boots and heels for that animal magic touch.
“Bring out your inner wild in these animal print pieces.”
THE LOOK: The animal print trend was covered by almost every major high street brand out there when I first started researching how the high street was tackling this trend. The reason why? For all its old connotations of being garish, brash and cheap; it’s an incredibly popular item to buy according to consumers. It was the third most-favourite type of fashion trend purchased in the last 6 months. And that’s for a trend no-one took that serious several years ago. So, almost any brand that I’ve covered for this lookbook could have tackled the animal print trend and done it well. But I chose Topshop.
Why, you might ask? They went and tried out different animal prints. They were unafraid to tackle some of the lesser animal style prints, such as crocodile, giraffe or bright snakeskin. That to me said they weren’t frightened or bored of this trend, and as a result they were a natural choice for me.
Case in point is the outfit I eventually styled and chose from Topshop. The shirt is an orange and red snakeskin print; the skirt is a black-and-white giraffe print midi number and the bag is neon crocodile print. I finished the outfit off with some snakeskin print ankle boots that have a very cool Western feel to it, and a thick alice band in my hair to finish off the outfit.
Giraffe print midi skirt: Topshop, found here – Snake-print large shirt: Topshop Boutique, found here – Snake-print Western ankle boots: Topshop, found here – Dark green velvet headband: Topshop, found here – Neon green croc-effect mini handbag: Topshop, found here
