Snakeskin is trending in 2025: A guide to wearing the pattern (even if you’re afraid of snakes)

Forget the wild snakeskin looks of the 1970s. Today the pattern is all about strategic accessories.

A snake-savvy guest in Paris at the Spring 2025 fashion shows. Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images

2025 is the year of the snake. For me it was 2021.

After moving back east, I spent a few months living in a friend’s country home in rural Connecticut. Just me, my husband and the six rat snakes denning in the living room radiator. Everyone happily napped through the winter. When spring came, our reptile roommates got restless. One day, a particularly plucky constrictor popped through the radiator lattice and hissed at us to turn down the music. Loretta Lynn was apparently not his vibe.

We called a man who went by the name Critter Cop and wore a hat emblazoned with a smiling raccoon. He shoved a flashlight into the radiator and advised us to “put some chicken wire over that”. When pressed for saner solutions, he mumbled something about a “big job” and “yes, they bite” before peeling out of the gravel driveway.

I spent the last weeks in the house sleeping with an antique croquet mallet and making sure the squatters weren’t brainstorming ways to make a slither for it. For years after, I didn’t feel especially scaly. My once-beloved python Jimmy Choo heels lived in the back of the closet. Still, my stance towards snakeskin could be best described as biblical: fairly warned but fatefully tempted.

Jil Sander Eldorado Small, $US2,050. Picture: WSJ

COS Mini Cavatelli Clutch Bag, $US135. Picture: WSJ

That shifted when I took in this year’s northern spring and autumn runway and store offerings. Despite my ambivalence, they looked too seductive to resist. Before heading back into the snake pit, I wanted to get an expert’s take on why leopard print’s cold-blooded cousin held such a grip on womenswear.

“Whether real or printed, snakeskin taps into deep psychological currents,” behavioural psychologist Carolyn Mair said. “It polarises precisely because of its symbolic weight. For some, it feels empowering, sexy, rebellious. For others, it’s too bold, unsettling or tangled with fear.” It all boils down to “what it means to wear another being’s essence”.

That evening I tried on a new snake-print knee-length coat borrowed from a brand. It felt decidedly “too bold”. Perhaps the best way to wear another being’s essence was very sparingly.

Thankfully, the top snake looks of 2025 celebrate restraint.

Fashion’s nostalgia for 1990s minimalism has reached the reptiles. Khaite’s streamlined embossed bags channel Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy in a pair of blink-and-you’ll-miss-them Calvin Klein snake flats – not the wild, head-to-toe outfits Cher wore circa 1972. I called Preston Davis, the pattern-averse founder of the blog Keep It Chic, to see how she was feeling about python.

Ursula Andress in head-to-toe snakeskin in 1965 — a no-go in 2025. Photo: RDB by DUKAS

“I actually just pulled out a pair of (old) Lanvin snakeskin sandals and can’t wait to wear them again,” she said. The rest of the outfit? “A simple skirt from the Row and a T-shirt. That’s the formula.”

Before adding a snake item to your closet, she advised, make sure it goes with several pieces you already own. For real-life dressing, she added, “a little bit does go a long way.”

Erin Kleinberg, the very stylish co-founder of fashion website Coveteur and chief executive of body care brand Sidia, is a long-time fan of the scale. “The texture, the repeated print, it just feels a bit badass,” she said of its allure.

Like Davis, Kleinberg advised upgrading an “otherwise basic outfit” with scaly accessories. “No head-to-toe snakeskin!” she said. (Unless, we agreed, you’re Keith Richards. Someone’s got to have sartorial sympathy for the devil.)

Approach snake-patterned clothing with caution, Kleinberg stressed. “The print can go cheesy quite easily. Stay away from bold colours especially.”

Aeyde Anna Sandals, about $US295. Picture: WSJ

Davis likes it in basic silhouettes, such as a go-to cotton Proenza Schouler T-shirt that she said “feels cool again”.

Whether you opt for embossed leather, fabric or the real thing, quality shows. For snake to feel elegant, not costume-y, “it needs to be well-made”, said Davis, “and well-made usually costs more”.

She suggests vintage resale sites for boa bargains. And before any readers demand I be skinned and made into a tote, all of my real snakeskin is vintage (as is the case for Kleinberg and Davis).

Mixing snake with other patterns, Davis advised, is for advanced ophiophilists. “I truly think Anna Wintour is one of the only women who does it successfully,” she said. If you haven’t been running a fashion magazine for four decades, best not to mix snake with polka dots or plaids.

Ultimately, I focused on accessories. I swapped a black belt for a python cincher from Georgia leather brand W. kleinberg (no relation to Erin). A Fendi snakeskin wrap bracelet easily paired with a gold stack of bangles for dinner. My all-black Ferragamo handbag didn’t feel too snake-y, thanks to the monochromatic colour.

Emboldened, I cautiously slid into a vintage snake print dress that had been denning in my closet for years. It felt empowering – for about 15 minutes. “For some,” Mair said, “snakeskin can evoke discomfort, especially when it resembles the actual animal.”

I shed the skin and googled the next year of the snake: 2037. I’ll wrap some chicken wire around the dress until then.

The Wall Street Journal