This is kind of random, but I never thought the day would come that I would actually voluntarily buy something with a leopard print on it. I’ve always found it to be super tacky. But these days I’m totally loving it! Especially when its printed on calf hair. Very chic! Here are a few great products that have been majorly tempting me lately.
1. Coat by Emerson Fry
2. Jcrew clutch
3. Madewell Ballet Flats
4. Alexander Wang Marion Bag
One thing that’s been driving me crazy as I’ve been shopping around – designers never seem to know the difference between a leopard and cheetah. They almost always use these names interchangeably when naming their prints! As a print designer AND as an animal lover, this drives me absolutely nuts! Let’s clear things up a bit, shall we? The following photos and descriptions will hopefully give you a better idea of which is which (along with a couple other wild cats that I’ve seen in prints, but are never acknowledged!)
First, the cheetah. I’m definitely a cat lady, and cheetahs happen to be my favorite big cat. Their spots are solid black dots, evenly spaced. The Emerson Fry coat pictured above is a great example of a cheetah print! Although, I do think they took some liberties and made the ground color more white.
Leopards, on the other hand, have more complex spots. They tend to look like a black doughnut, horseshoe, or ring of dots. There is usually a brown spot in the center of the black ring. This pattern is probably the most common type of spotted cat used in prints for clothing and accessories. The Madewell shoes in the photo above are a great example of leopard!
I don’t think I’ve even seen a designer name their print after the jaguar, but I have definitely seen this animal used on prints before. Jaguar spots are very similar to leopard spots, but they tend to have a larger, more open ring of black spots. The brown spot in the middle is much larger than that of a leopard and contains a few smaller black spots in the middle. Its sort of like a more complex leopard spot. Above, the Alexander Wang bag just might be a jaguar print!
And finally, another neglected spotted cat is the ocelot. I’m sure designers shy away from using this name since it is much less well known to the general public. Ocelots also have spots that are similar to leopards and jaguars, but theirs are much more elongated. They almost look like they are stretched out, or warped. Like conjoined leopard spots, or some sort of spot/stripe hybrid. Anyway, These are beautiful cats and I’m pretty sure that the Jcrew bag above features an ocelot print.
Well, hopefully this was educational. I could go into much more detail about differences in body build and behavior, but focusing on the spots is what is important in the fashion world. At work I recently named one of my prints at work, “jaguar.” Hopefully it makes it into stores with that name intact!
Haha..I love this post! Thanks for the lesson on animal spots – I never really paid attention to the differences before!
so educational! haha 😀 love it!
Kathy, I’m sure you already knew all this info. You are an even bigger animal lover than I am. Oh, and I didn’t even talk about clouded leopards! but I don’t see their markings on prints much so I didn’t bother.
You forgot the Lynx…
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/eurasian-lynx-in-snow-willi-rolfes.html
LOL, yes, I did forget them. But you don’t really see them on prints and they are not as distinctive of a pattern in my opinion.
You know, I had the same exact conversation with my China developers. They were soooo confused about cheetah vs leopard as well!
visually i know the differences but i always forget which spots go with which cat! thanks for the breakdown cheryl! super helpful =D
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Just had an argument last night with fellow workers about the two.
Love it…
This is a great article. I never thought about the difference until I wanted to write about it recently and realized that I have been using cheetah and leopard print interchangeably when in fact they are not. Good thing I checked 🙂
So glad this was helpful to you!!
Thank you so much! This was very explanatory! I now understand the differences much better!
Yes! I hate it when something is called cheetah print and is not- can’t designers just google it before they try to charge you hundreds of dollars for a purse that is clearly leopard print? I’ve schooled many a sales people in spot identification so glad it’s not just me! 🙂
I was getting ready to buy a gift for my grandchild who always claimed to be a Cheeta lover and when I asked her to pick from a couple of things, guess what, she always chose the leopard! Finally I checked her room out and it is filled with Leopard not Cheeta! I finally got a chance to flex about something that she thought she knew all about. Thanks!
Oh now i know the difference.Thanks a lot
Just want to thank you, for these photo’s!! I have argued w/ my daughter about the leopard print, and I was RIGHT!!! See, children ought to listen to their parents, were not ALL stupid. LOL!!!! Sincerely, Denise L.
Thank you so much for including the visual differences in the animal print, along with the explanation. This was truly a huge help!!
So very helpful, now let me pass it on so I can pretend to be in the know and everyone else trying to find out…lol
just kidding…love the post sir.
I love cheetahs and leopards and even jaguars!!! 🙂