Sometimes cheetahs win

This year has been ALL about leopard print, but sometimes a good cheetah print wins for me.  I’ve always admired the cheetah print that Miranda Dunn uses in her coats because of its unusual, elegant, biscuity colour without even a trace of orangey brown.  I debated for a while between the leopard and the super shiny navy faux fur version she does. Here is a link to her navy and hand-cut stars coat; you can see in the photos how the navy fur almost sparkles, which obviously appeals to me!   If I lived somewhere colder, I’d do the heavier navy faux fur, but I know I’ll get way more use out of the lighter weight cheetah fur.  There are some who will call this print leopard, but you know it isn’t.  Sorry to be all Hermione Granger about this, but leopards have rosettes and cheetahs have spots, as I explained in a previous post.

Back to Miranda Dunn… she’s a Londoner (who coincidentally lives precisely one mile from my house), a clothing manufacturer for other brands you’ll know (like Anthropologie), a super-busy mother of four, and a passionate opponent of fast fashion and waste in the fashion industry.  She’s a lady after my own heart.  In other words… she’s one of us.  Like all of my favourites, she’s a woman running her own brand.  She’s stretched and busy, yet making the effort to run her business in a principled and thoughtful way.  She explained to me that in the factory, the faux fur coats are cut by hand instead of by machine, to minimise wastage.  Many of her coats are custom; you can order whatever colourways and initials you like on them. If you have short or long arms or need extra length in the hem, she’ll make a coat especially for you.  In fact, when I got my coat a few months back, there wasn’t a long option in the cheetah print, only this shorter one and this this mini length one.  Shorter coats don’t suit me, so I asked her to use the cheetah fabric in the long style, and voila, she did.  The sparkly long navy is still on my wishlist for a future purchase…

On this particularly grey day out in London, along with the cheetah coat I wore these new Lotus shoes with a half bow on the front.   The almost-vintage style of these shoes work well with the vibe of the coat and the veiled beret.  I’ve been very loyal to Lotus shoes since I first discovered them for one reason, they are THE most comfortable heels I can find.  You may remember the silver and black sequin striped heels I wore last year?  They’re still going strong and get loads of wear.  For any day I’m spending a lot of time in heels, I reach for this brand.  This particular style, classic with a subtle twist that doesn’t compete with an outfit for attention, filled a big hole in my wardrobe. Shockingly, one doesn’t always need a statement shoe!   Like Goldilocks, I chose this pair because the toe is pointy, but not too pointy, and the heel is neither too high nor too low.  They’re just right with everything I wear them with. 

Here’s the part where I’m going to harass you to vote for me in the Blog Awards again.  Apparently, some of you had a hard time voting a couple of weeks ago because the day after I published my post, the voting website was hacked, so they had to shut it down for several hours.  If you had trouble voting, I’d love for you to try again.  If you already voted successfully, thank you so much, and don’t bother voting again because only one vote per IP address counts.   Just click on the word VOTE below, and then the VOTE button on the page you are led to:

VOTE here!

Disclaimer: Thank you to Lotus for the shoes and for sponsoring this post.

Linking to: notdeadyetstyle, notdressedaslamb