It’s so fitting that I’m wearing my leopard print in the jungle, don’t you think?! I took these super fun photos with my friend on Saturday at our local botanical gardens, which is always an enjoyable way to spend the day. Today, I’m once again teaming up with the Magnificent 8 to showcase our ageless style and eight different ways to style animal print this fall. Keep scrolling to read more about this collab and to see how I styled my leopard dress with this black skirt (that’s right—the leopard blouse is actually a dress!).

I’ll be honest with you… I used to hate animal prints when I was little. I found them rather repulsive—seems dramatic, I know. I can’t explain this inherent dislike for animal prints or where it came from, but I do know snakeskin was always the most offensive of all. To this day I have never owned anything snakeskin, but all the trendy snakeskin booties on the market right now are really converting me to the other side.

Perhaps fashion blogging opened my eyes to the world of animal prints, or perhaps my childish mind finally realized that prints are not the actual skin/hide of animals. Regardless, the point is that my horizons have now been broadened, and I have fully embraced all-thing-animal. Does that mean I own a ton of these prints? No. But I do have a few sassy pieces, like these leopard-heeled booties or this leopard print dress. Yes—it is, in fact, a dress.

When fashion blogging first became a thing, I read a blog post about styling skirts on top of dresses. I was shook, as the kids say. While the idea of layering a skirt over a dress seemed so novel to me back then, I now get all-sorts-of-creative with layering, putting shirts under dresses and skirts over dresses and sweaters over everything. It takes a special kind of dress and a special kind of skirt to layer them successfully, but this combination did just the trick. If you look closely, you can see a sliver of the leopard dress popping out the bottom of the skirt in some of the photos! I accessorized the outfit with this adorable pom pom circle purse, and I love how the burgundy brings out the burnt orange colors in the leopard print. It’s faboo!

On a completely separate note, today’s post marks my 400^th blog post on Graceful Rags. Isn’t that crazy?! For all you fellow bloggers, writers, artists, and content creators out there, it’s pretty amazing to just sit every once and awhile and appreciate the volume of what you’ve created over the years. Despite where you are in your current goals, you should be proud of yourself for everything you’ve already created!

To check out 7 other ways to style animal print, check out these lovely bloggers’ posts today! I know *I* can’t wait to see all their looks.

The Magnificent 8 is a collaboration among 8 stylish women from every decade of life showcasing our style one generation at a time. The mission of this collaboration is to show you just how ageless style is, how we can each dress however we’d like and in ways that make us feel fabulous. There are no age restrictions on style. So wear what you want, when you want, add a smile, and strut your style with confidence. And be sure to check out all 7 of these amazing gals!

Every quarter, we choose a theme and each create an outfit that suits our own personal tastes and fashion choices and we post them on the last Wednesday of every third month. So be sure to go check out everyone’s posts for lots of style inspiration at any age!

Let me introduce the ladies of The Magnificent 8.

Grace of Graceful Rags is representing teenagers.
Michelle of Michelle’s Pa(i)ge is representing the 20-somethings.
Roxanne of Glass of Glam is representing the 30-somethings.
Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge is representing the 40-somethings.
Rena of Fine Whatever is representing the 50-somethings.
Eugenia of Age of Grace is representing the 60-somethings.
Lesley of Jodie’s Touch of Style is representing the 70-somethings.
And Charlotte of Jodie’s Touch of Style is representing the 80-somethings.

We are showing that you can’t put a number on style!

Do you ever wear animal prints? I feel like people either love them or hate them, and I have now been on both sides. Also, have you ever layered a skirt over a dress or are you, like me, still amazed by this ingenious form of versatility? Leave me a comment below!

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you have a wonderful (and safe) Halloween tomorrow. As moms everywhere would say, “Make good choices, kids.”

 

Miles of smiles,

Grace

 

Beige Jacket: Francesca’s, $60 // Leopard Dress: JCPenney, $11 // Leopard Booties: Crown Vintage via DSW, $35 // Burgundy Circle Purse: Nordstrom Rack, $50 living for living coral