Animal prints are back in fashion!

Forget those leopard print bags and furry scarves. Animal-inspired fashion goes several notches up with French footwear designer Christian Louboutin’s lion paw pumps that have caught the fancy of some daring fashionistas.

Forget those leopard print bags and furry scarves. Animal-inspired fashion goes several notches up with French footwear designer Christian Louboutin’s lion paw pumps that have caught the fancy of some daring fashionistas. Actor Blake Lively recently wore the brown pumps on the sets of Gossip Girl, while actor Sarah Jessica Parker wore them in August at the premiere of I Don’t Know How She Does It in Moscow.

The unusual stiletto is made to look like a lion’s paw with black talons, glammed-up with a crystal-studded heel. The shoe from Louboutin Fall/Winter 2011 collection is called Alex, and though its accurate price is not known, it could make you poorer by £4,000 (around Rs 3,21,057).

The shoe has caused quite a stir in the fashion world. While some bloggers and online fashion forums give a thumbs-up to it, some find it “awful” and “freaky”. “They’re weird but quite fun,” posts Kate on Sugarscape.com. Berryciaga calls them “awful, awful shoes”, while Aquila describes them as “freaky” on

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. Another member Baglovinequine says, “Mr. Louboutin is running out of creativity. Who would want their feet to look like giant heeled PAWS?”

But closer home, fashion designers find this absurd style interesting. Designer Rina Dhaka says, “Louboutin is an inventive genius and with the lion paw pumps, he has pushed the edge. Sometime you have to come up with a buzzing style that has the world talking about it.” Designer Namrata Joshipura too finds them sexy. “Aren’t we bored of seeing the same stuff every where? It’s a very unusual pair and both Blake Lively and SJP have made a chic style statement with it,” she says.