Styling Animal Prints for Fall With the Thrifty Six

I have recently been welcomed into a wonderful group of fashion and lifestyle bloggers that focuses on styling preloved clothing and accessories in themed monthly posts (third Monday of the month). I hope that this showcase of secondhand items and outfits provides some shopping and style inspiration for anyone who is interested in creating great looks in a way that is sustainable for our planet and our pocketbooks.

Today's topic is Animal Prints (Not Leopard), which is a fun topic, though a little challenging because leopard print is pretty much the go-to autumn animal print.

Of course, I have approximately 1.3 million thrifted scarves with various animal prints, but I wanted to go in a bit of a different direction for this post. Continuing my making-summer-last vibe that's been strong in me so far this season, I chose a non-traditional animal print and color scheme for a fall outfit: a thrifted bluebird print blouse in a blue and pink look. The blouse dates from a Goodwill thrifting trip in 2019, bought at the bargain price of $5.24. It's from that short period of time when Loft sold plus size clothing (sigh). The pink in the blouse is such a pale color that none of my cardigans or jackets matches it, but for fall styling, I decided to try this dusky rose cardigan (which is on the warmer side so nice for fall). In this context, the pink of the blouse reads more as a blush neutral and the dusky rose as the accent color. I think this shade of deep, soft, warm-tinged pink is a great choice for fall since autumn colors are generally dark and muted.

OOTD 9/27/24

However, I did include a strong fall staple (at least in my wardrobe): jeans. Summer is too hot for jeans, and winter is too snowy for them, so I tend to wear jeans the most in fall (and somewhat in spring). These are another recent (retail) purchase in the "normal jeans" category...full length and not skinny leg...that are best for dry weather. I paired them with some classic snub nose ballet flats that repeat the medium blue color of the bluebirds in the blouse.

My layered necklace has 3 pieces, which is probably the most common number I combine for layering. The long silver pendant and mid-length blush pink and silver necklace are from CJ Banks. The shortest necklace is a DIY piece in which I continued the bird theme by upcycling a cover from Audubon magazine to make paper beads.

I adored the color palette of this page that combines the glorious peach, pink, and lavender ombré of a sunrise with the pale blue of shadowy snow. There was a significant amount of black text on this page, but it was easy to cover up the text along the edges of the strips with silver marker. I love the irregular striped appearance of the rolled beads. I would not have thought to purposely include a small amount of brown and black in the beads, but the darker neutral colors from the birds and plant life in the image add some nice contrast and interesting visual texture to the final product. The speckled black-and-brown sections have such a "why yes I am a close up of the mottled feather pattern of a ground bird" look to them when you know what you're looking at. Why that's another animal print (not leopard) in my outfit! Well done, me! :D

My daily bracelet stack is a colorful one built around one of my older (winter 2022) paper bead bracelet sets in blue, aqua, and pink with silver accent.

My bead soup earrings of the day are simple "3 glass beads on a stick with silver disk spacers" stack earrings that I made to match the bracelet set using the 3 major colors in the palette. 3 beads on a stick is a classic for a reason - it's easy and effective!

For a small taste of a more traditional "animal print," I took a quick photo of this bowl when I was about to make myself a perfect fruit parfait earlier this month. It was gifted, not thrifted - one of an artisan-made set of two large dinner plates and two bowls with bold animal prints that was a present from my parents when I was about 20 years old (so in the range of 30 years ago). I think they must have seen them at a market/craft fair type situation because that was well before the time of buying this kind of thing on Etsy. It was a great choice because I love animal prints, but the inside joke was that this run of dishes was shown on the insane cop parody TV series Sledge Hammer that my dad and I had enjoyed a few years prior. I smile every time I use these dishes.

OK, so I decided I couldn't go without showing you at least ONE of my many thrifted animal print scarves (and a previously unshared outfit of the day with it). I really like this jewel tone silky scarf with a giraffe and leaf motif (which was the brown and black "start with a scarf" wardrobe inspiration for the Nelly capsule). It drapes beautifully like this, but it can be tied in a multitude of ways that cause different parts/colors of the scarf to stand out.

I like seeing another outfit with my now stained and lamented thrifted camel-gold silk skirt (featured in my first Thrifty Six post). A lot of people avoid lighter colors like this on their bottom half in winter. I understand that when wearing pants and for people who have a dirty public transportation city commute (if you know, you know). But I think when wearing skirts that aren't very long...are of a length that will be well covered by your coat...you can easily wear lighter colors even on snowy days.

OOTD 12/7/23

I found these DIY bright pink/magenta/gold stack earrings to be a really fun addition to my winter outfit. The richer pink tones related well to the jewel tones in my scarf while having a vivid, cheerful, not-traditionally-winter-like vibe.

Now let's review the Animal Print (Not Leopard) outfits that my thrifty friends have styled...

The Thrifty Six:

• Emma of Style Splash

• Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

• Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

• Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

• Sally of Within a World of My Own [me]

• Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

Emma of Style Splash

"I have a lot of leopard print, but the animal print that comes in second for me is snake! I bought this Scotch and Soda suit on Thrift+ a few years ago. Unlike my other snake print pieces, this actually has intertwined snakes with googly eyes rather than the usual scaly pattern. I've featured it on the blog before with the same T-shirt and bag...one day I'll get around to styling it differently!" 

Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

"Tyger Tyger, burning bright, in the forests of the night.

What immortal hand or eye could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies, burnt the fire of thine eyes?

If thy cannot Leopard be, then be a Tyger in disguise!

A little collaboration from myself and Willian Blake there, but essentially, I’m doing Tiger!"

Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

"I know my bootie collection is pushing the edges of space, but I couldn't resist this pair while thrifting this summer. They had never been worn, so I snagged them and put together this dark outfit with pops of yellow. The blouse, belt, purse, and of course, the booties are all secondhand. In fact, I decorated the purse with a couple of charms and a scarf."

Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

"When it is my turn to choose a theme, I checked my closet to see what I haven't shown yet with The Thrifty Six. ( It is on the blog though.) And that was this animal print dress. It's definitely not leopard but I am not quite sure what it is then. I think it is giraffe. 

I bought it on Vinted and it is from a brand where I already got two fantastic dresses from. I love the ruffles and the side split. I added the vest because it was still warm enough to wear the rather thin dress without a cardigan. And wore my beloved black leather boots. The pre-loved necklace is actually a bit too much for my liking, but I love my gun metal cuff."

Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

"Keeping leopard out of the mix was a bit challenging! I styled a thrifted wrap with an elephant print over a preloved floral print dress. Then I added two secondhand necklaces that feature elephants and a pair of my thrifted cowgirl boots for this budget friendly mixed print mayhem." 

Next month's topic has yet to be announced...but I'm sure it will offer up all kinds of spectacular style options for the group.

In the meantime, visit these lovely bloggers for the details of their thrifted Animal Print (Not Leopard) outfits and more style inspiration:

• Emma of Style Splash

• Jane of Preloved-Vintage-Handmade

• Jodie of Jodie's Touch of Style

• Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style

• Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge

Do you like wearing animal prints...either traditional leopard, zebra, giraffe, snake, etc. skin or "zoological prints" (as I call them) of the full animal? Is there a particular animal you like to wear...or specifically don't like to wear? Do you associate different animals with different seasons, like bluebirds for spring and leopard print for fall? Do you like home décor with animals? Do you ever buy animal motif items secondhand for your wardrobe or home? Does anybody remember the show Sledge Hammer??

Blogs I link up with are listed here.