What color shoes to wear with animal print dresses

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color shoes animal print dress

Animal print dresses street view

Ekaterina Normalnaya Designer from Minsk Belarus wears lace-up studded platform ankle boots with an animal print dress
Image via Lookbook.nu – Ekaterina Normalnaya Designer from Minsk Belarus wears lace-up studded platform ankle boots with an animal print dress (visit her blog)
Alexandra Per from Vigo Span wears nude ballerina flats with a leopard print dress
Image via Lookbook.nu – Alexandra Per from Vigo Span wears nude ballerina flats with a leopard print dress (visit her blog)

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Usually when I think of animal print I conjure up images of your traditional leopard cheetah and tiger prints. This is a Northern Chinese leopard at least according to the info that accompanies the picture on the Wikipedia page where I found it.

North China leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis), seen through the glass of its cage
North China leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis), seen through the glass of its cage

Thanks to Marie-Lan Nguyen for putting this picture in the public domain. How cute is that leopard? Of course I would not have the courage to get within a mile of it but it is so pretty. Can you imagine ripping its skin off to make bags and shoes? But I am sure they don’t do that any more right? These days they don’t use real animal skin to make items of apparel (I hope), but I do think they did once upon a time. Maybe they never did or maybe they still do. I’m really not sure either way and just not interested in doing the research right now.

But back to the discussion about animal print dresses and the color shoes to wear with them

What color shoes to wear with animal print dresses

What color shoes to wear with animal print dresses is going to really depend on the dress. There are so many different kinds of animal prints. I said above that I tend to conjure up images of your traditional leopard cheetah and tiger prints but what constitutes “traditional”? After all here’s another leopard (a Persian Leopard) with skin that is quite different from that of the North China Leopard above.

Persian Leopard sitting
Persian Leopard sitting

Thanks to Tamar Assaf for putting this picture in the public domain. This Persian leopard looks a bit more on serious side–kind of majestic and not quite so cute that makes you want to cuddle up to it; but looks can be deceiving. This leopard could be gentle as a lamb while the cat above could be the one that mauls you to death without provocation. But I digress…

My real point is that animal prints vary so what color shoes you could wear with a particular animal print dress is going to depend on the dress.

As always I stress to each his own. You might select a color shoes to wear with your animal print dress that someone else thinks is all wrong for the dress; but you should always have the confidence to wear what you want to wear if you personally think it looks good. You’re dressing for yourself. You should be anyway. It should be about how you feel and what you think and the opinions of others can be considered if you like but you certainly shouldn’t treat the opinions of others as if they are “the word”.

Generally you can’t go wrong with black; so to be on the safe side wear a sexy pair of black pumps or other black shoes if your dress isn’t the kind with which you would wear pumps; but if you want to avoid black and brown colors here are some outfits with animal print dresses and bold color shoes to give you a rough idea of how the different colors might look.

Animal print dresses more street views…

Blogger Kimberly Kong - the sensible stylista - wears black sandals with a Stylemoi maxi leopard print dress
Image via Lookbook.nu – Blogger Kimberly Kong – the sensible stylista – wears black sandals with a Stylemoi maxi leopard print dress (more via her blog)

A Stylemoi maxi dress worn with black sandals. Model is Kimberly Kong from the blog Sensible Stylista

Blogger Tini Tani wears an animal print dress with rust orange pumps
Image via Lookbook.nu – Blogger Tini Tani wears an animal print dress with rust orange pumps (more via her blog)

Tina Tani who blogs via tini-tani.blogspot.com wears rust orange pumps and accessories with her Love Republic animal print dress.

Animal print dress with wine suede pumps

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Here is an outfit featuring a MICHAEL Michael Kors sleeveless shift dress in tiger print with a pair of wine colored Dolce Vita pumps and a Friis & Company clutch purse in a similar wine red shade to match the pumps. The jewelry are from  DANNIJO. A DANNIJO bangle bracelet and DANNIJO silver plated drop earrings

The Dolce Vita Pumps

Dolce Vita Rosetta Wine Suede PumpsPurchase via Heels.com - $170

Animal print of course comes not only in varying colors but also in varying types. It’s not just cats like leopards, cheetahs and tigers that animal print is modeled from. Here is an outfit featuring a zebra print dress.

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The ISSA London zebra print dress is a bit on the expensive side. The price ranges depending on where you buy the dress. I saw the dress for $782 being sold on matchesfashion.com. I also saw it on mytheresa.com being sold for $804. Stylebop.com has it for $585. The pumps are a pair of  Michael Antonio hidden platform pumps and the handbag is an Urban Code colorblock handbag” The necklace is from Lanvin. It is a gold collar necklace and the bracelet is a Rebecca Minkoff gold bangle.

The ISSA Zebra Knit Dress

The ISSA Zebra Knit sweater Dress
The ISSA Zebra Knit sweater Dress

Purchase via Stylebop.com - $585

Here’s another outfit featuring a Dolce & Gabbana leopard print mini dress
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Dolce & Gabbana leopard print mini dress with gold Nine West high heel platform shoes and a Chanel polka dot bag. The jewelry: A Giuseppe Zanotti snake necklace” a Marni bangle bracelet.

So these three outfits suggest you can wear a wine red, bright red or gold shoes with an animal print dress. You can wear black shoes as shown in the set at the top which features a Preen Coil Leopard Printed Dress a pair of Dolce & Gabbana black ankle strap sandals with a black MICHAEL Michael Kors zip bag, a gold ring and a GUESS gold necklace.

Or you can match the color shoes to some color from the dress. If the dress is more brown then you can wear a shade of brown that goes with the brown in the dress. If the dress is more orange red then you can find a pair of dark orange red shoes; or if you’re feeling particularly daring you can try a neon shade for maximum visibility; but for that you probably need to have an impenetrable confidence so that anyone who might feel inclined to give you one of those “What in the world is she wearing?” looks might not cause you to feel self conscious. The animal print by itself will make you more noticeable so wearing neon shoes in addition could be considered ill advised. However you just never know what’s going to look good. Things most of us would never think of putting together other people put together and create outfits that make us stop and take notice. If people don’t take chances in fashion then there’s only sameness which might be safe but can be boring.

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