AnOther Loves: A Savage Mule

Animal print has endured to the point of cliché and yet it almost never gets old

Animal print is iconoclastic. A semiotic marker for a maverick with a feral nature. Think of seductress Mrs Robinson in The Graduate in leopard, cheetah and zebra. Or Chris Tucker’s renegade radio-show host Ruby Rhod – in a sci-fi sculpted leopard-print catsuit – in The Fifth Element. And, of course, Elizabeth Taylor’s leopard pelt-lined opera coat in 20th-century blockbuster Cleopatra – one of the Egyptian queen’s 65 costume changes. Over the decades, Hollywood pin-ups have positioned that textile as an emblem of the raw and free, of untamable femininity. Animal print has endured to the point of cliché and yet it almost never gets old. Ferocious and timeless, these leopard-print calf-hair stilettos from Giuseppe Zanotti are named Savage Mules: with a gold-tone toe cap, rhinestones and a 105 mm heel, savage they are. A pair of shoes fit for prowling the urban jungle, they appeal to the animal within. 

The Giuseppe Zanotti Intriigo Savage Mule 105 is available to shop here