KING OF LIONS- LEOPARD PRINT IN MEN'S FASHION

Almost 5 am in the morning, again, I always get the most creative and busy at night. I have always been like that, I am a night person most of the time. Except during holidays when abroad, then I love to get up very early and to see the sunrise above the see or mountains, depends where I am. It's strange, isn't it, well I don' t care, that's just me. Flicking through the net and doing brainstorming,  I'm looking for the ' the moment', the ' spark of inspiration when it clicks  and I found it by firstly a post of one of my favourite fashion bloggers Eli  from The Art of a Avantgarde - Eli shows us how to wear leopard print with a ' dash of daring ' and Riccardo Tisci's Givenchy ad for SS11, in which, both, male and female, are wearing leopard print too.

The most amazing Eli Alcaraz ( soon to be first fashion assistant to Anna Dello Russo ) from The Art of Avantgarde

Leopard print craze and Givenchy SS 11

I wrote lately a couple of posts in regards to Givenchy's ground breaking attitude towards transsexuallity. Again Tisci's vision for SS11 plays with cross/ unisex dressing and using leopard print in a gender bending way. Leopard print for men, whooo whoo, difficult, dangerous but the way Tisci found a solution for it I find very remarkable. Firstly you have models walking the catwalk showing excellently cut fashion in uni colours like black, white and cream. This is suddenly interrupted by a female model wearing an all-leopard print suit!

Wake up!

Now it starts to become interesting, Tisci is adding slowly, and discreetly more and more leopard print to the show. Firstly on shoes, then underneath a white shirt and black leather trousers, on a long sleeve, just the underarms showing a bit of yellow- black print, then on jackets with a white shirt and white shorts. It goes on and  then the show reaches its crescendo in form a of an all leopard print suit for him- and the circle is closing ( interestingly the chairs of the catwalk are arranged in a circle too) Almost like evolution, the leopard print starts off on a female model and then ends with the same suit on a male model. So do we still have gender specific prints- no- leopard becomes unisex and can be worn by men and women equally well adding a bit of rock- star sexiness to an otherwise simple outfit.

On a long sleeve 

On a bomber jacket

All photos taken from the LA Times 

I personally think the leopard print works the best on men if used just in moderation. It is a very powerful print and for me it has nothing to do with gender. But for women I think you can do it like Eli and wear different leopard prints together to highlight the drama of the print.  But I love the way Tisci got it right again- the tricky business of unisex dressing. Just as a little note, the Givenchy SS11 collection is in more ways gender breaking than just in the use of the leopard print:. The use of lace on shirts for men and the shorts cut with an apron- like front looking like a skirt from one side and like shorts from the other, but these specialties can actually lead to additional  posts. 

And not only Givenchy jumped on the leopard print wagon,  Trussardi used it and many more menswear designers too this year. Just have a look of my small collection of examples I found on the net. Enjoy gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!
Rajmund,.The Fashion Philosopher

Leopard print trousers by Peter Lappin

Japanese Magazine

( Below ) And again very simple styling at Trussardi SS11 brings the best effect. Just a t-shirt ( striped or white ) and a pair of  jeans. Just effortlessly cool!!!

Trussardi SS11

Trussardi SS11 

Kate Eyre SS11, I did a post of the collection back in January 

Of course, we can't  forget Dolce & Gabbana if we talk about leopard print. This time inform of an leopard printed Ipad case.