Leopard Midi Skirt

You can’t go on Instagram or scroll your news feed without noticing this summer’s most popular fashion item: the leopard midi skirt. The animal-print trend has taken over the streets and racks, from influencer-bait labels like Reformation and Ganni to fast-fashion brands like Zara and Topshop. It’s so ubiquitous, in fact, that an anthropomorphic Instagram account tracking the look has been launched.

But unlike the miniskirt of 1970 (when a craze that caused Seventh Avenue to quake and spark fierce debates on sex, power and taste dominated national conversation), today’s midi leopard-print mania is being met with a surprisingly calm response. That’s likely due to the fact that it’s more of a gradual shift than an outright fashion crisis.

Rather than a full-on pandemic, the leopard-print fad has been a creeping one, with designers and retailers slowly adding the style to their collections. This year, for example, Tom Ford and Diane von Furstenberg pushed leopard-print pants, while Los Angeles-based brand re:named made it a summer staple with its Naomi skirt, a bronze silk knee-length slip adorned in the print.

It’s now easy to find a leopard-print skirt at just about any price point, from luxury ($1,500 and up) to e-commerce ($25 and under). And the good news is that, like most trends in an accelerated world, when it comes to this particular fad, it’s likely here to stay. According to Marshal Cohen, chief industry adviser for the NPD Group, “When luxury puts a trend out there and it’s adopted by the lower end of the market, it’s something that doesn’t really die.” That’s because, unlike other trends, when a leopard-print midi skirt hits your closet, you don’t have the option of resisting it.