Styling Leopard Pants for the Leopard Averse (Grandpa Approved)!

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Styling leopard print pants for the leopard print averse is a challenge I wanted to allow myself to try.

You see — In my truest form, I truly detest animal print clothing. I HATE it. I know. So judgey. Gross.

It all started when, as a child, I witnessed my mother coming back home from a Vegas girl’s trip wearing a leopard print dress.

I think I probably looked at her with a puzzled and grossed-out expression written all across my face.

It felt similar to when you see a man who always has a beard and is now newly clean-shaven for the first time, or only knowing a person to wear glasses who briefly takes them off, and seeing them without their glasses on for the first time.

It’s an entirely new aspect of a persona and appearance to adjust to.

As children, I think that we hold our mothers to these very high standards, and so when the woman who raises you deviates from her norm of presentation, you feel weirded out.

Kids have strong opinions of their parents, and when a child is introduced to a different version of their parent (down to the clothing) — it can feel like a betrayal.

“Who is that? What is she wearing? She’s one of those moms?”

When I think of leopard print dresses in the 90s, I think of Night of the Roxbury, and I just…..see the nightlife and Emilio Estevez!

Ha.

Looking back on it, it feels like a funny thing to be upset about.

As a ten-year-old, it felt like (I don’t know how to explain it). Weird. The dress was actually done really tastefully, but it was the print I couldn’t get into.

Wearing a Print I Hate – Styling Leopard Print Pants

Giving clothing styles you don’t love a chance is my favorite way to move myself outside of my style comfort zone.

I like the classics. I like fun colors, but I truly tend to stay away from prints.

Because I would be moving outside of my comfort zone, I wanted some ground rules.

Just because you don’t love a pattern doesn’t mean you have to get the one that is the most popular.

If you are in the market for leopard print pants, the light wash version is the one that everyone seems to be wearing.

If I was going to be wearing a print I didn’t like, I needed a wash that felt truer to me, and I had to find some redeeming quality from these pants If I was going to follow through with buying a potential dud.

What did I like about the pants? I like pants in a darker wash in general. I think they look a bit more polished.

That being said, I still wanted to feel comfortable in them.

I knew that dressing them up would feel like too much too soon.

My style tip is to find an item of clothing you want to try and integrate it slowly, and doing so in a way that you actually can style with the actual clothing that you reach for daily.

Here are the Looks — Inspired by Every Grandpa Ever!

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xx,

Nikita