At the Dior show in Paris in January, designer Kim Jones presented a decidedly laid-back collection of menswear. Almost every look included sweatpants, and the collection was our first chance to see Jones’s collaboration with Birkenstock. But there was one especially eye-catching punctuation: leopard print. Specifically, one boxy overshirt, one rain mac and one beret. So often mocked as the favourite animal pattern of blowsy TV barmaids, in Jones’s clever interpretation leopard print was used to offset the muted greys of the collection, demonstrating something we’ve thought for a long time: leopard print is not only cool, but easy to wear.
You can sling it over your sweats, à la Dior, but you can use it in formalwear too. Recently, there has been a boom in start-up loafer brands with insouciant messaging — see Blackstock & Weber; Vinny’s; Horatio — and all of the above feature leopard-print designs. Worn with even the drabbest of suits, a pair of LP penny loafers “elevates” the whole outfit, making people think you’re at least twice as stylish as you really are. (Many fear and respect leopard print, much like the leopard itself.)
Beret
The same goes for shirts: Versace’s AW ’22 collection opened with classic tailoring, punched-up by an LP chemise beneath. And this season, you could try accessorising with a leopard-print scarf from Saint Laurent, or leopard-print socks from Raey, or layer up a leopard-printccardigan from Wacko Maria.
It is a dangerous drug, though. Even the merest whisker of animal print can lead to a full-blown safari overload. If the urge does arise to go all-out, we would first advise restraint, and then point you in the direction of Jil Sander and Dolce & Gabbana, whose AW ’22 collections featured oversized leopard-print outerwear. If you must go big, go big with one, voluminous ode to the motif and cocoon yourself in the trend. Just keep out of sight of poachers.
