How to find the balance between fierce and fashionable this season.
Animal prints are timeless, always reinventing themselves with each new season, and 2024 is no different. If you’ve been keeping an eye on the spring / summer trends that have dominated the Northern Hemisphere over the past six months, you will have noticed leopard, cheetah and snake prints popping up often.
The viral Ganni leopard print jeans have been particularly prevalent, selling out with each drop, and as ballet flats are sure to stick around for another season or four, we’ve seen a rise in printed versions, with textured and tactile animal print slip-ons offering an easy way to give your outfit a new point of view.
The best part about this trend is that its cyclical nature makes it a sitter for a second-hand score. Almost every decade from the ‘20s to the 2000s has had an animal-print era, meaning the vintage finds are there to be snapped up.
In the roaring twenties, animal prints symbolised glamour and sophistication, with real leopard fur coats making a truly opulent statement. Thankfully, with changing views on animal protection, faux animal prints became more mainstream and in the mod revolution of the 1960s, designers such as Christian Dior and Yves Saint Laurent redefined the animal print, introducing it as part of haute couture collections that spoke to liberated women.
1980s power dressing was when prints including leopard, cheetah and zebra were at their boldest. In a decade that favoured maximalism and statement pieces, oversized coats and exaggerated accessories were trends that were hard to ignore, particularly when worn in wild prints.
The ’90s heralded a return to minimalism, but animal prints still found their place in the grunge era. And then in 2010, a full maximalist revival was embraced by the likes of designers Roberto Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana, who brought these prints back to the runway in ‘more is more’ modern silhouettes.
For 2024, the take on the trend is a balanced one, and in fact, it’s in accessories where you’ll find animal prints are appearing the most, making it an easy trend to dip a toe into (quite literally, in fact).
Pairing a statement or subtle animal print piece with neutral basics is a foolproof way to look chic without going overboard; it’s as simple as pairing blue jeans, a white tee and the printed accessory of your choice – be that a snake-print bag, leopard belt or spotted cheetah ballet flat.
The contrast between print and simplicity is what keeps the look polished, so with this in mind, we’ve curated our shopping picks for spring; finds that every budget can get on board with.
