When it comes to footwear, I usually find myself gravitating towards neutral, fuss-free options: a sober thong with a kitten heel, or a good ol’ stiletto with not more than two straps. But there’s a slew of new offbeat styles that are so good, I’m considering bringing maximalism to my shoe game.
While the OG weird shoe, the Margiela Tabi, has divided audiences ever since it first surfaced in 1988, the last year has seen a resurgence of some wonderfully weird footwear. At Mathieu Blazy’s spring 2024 show for Bottega Veneta, leather sandals looked like they were made of tropical banana leaves. Meanwhile at Loewe, Jonathan Anderson has consistently delighted us with heels featuring wilting roses, bars of soap, cracked eggs (all from spring/summer 2022), and balloons (spring/summer 2023). The latest iteration has a real foundation brush that one content creator has done a full face of make-up with and even a stiletto with paw prints for where your toes would rest.
While they might be hard to explain to confounded onlookers, you’d be surprised how wearable an eccentric shoe can be. You don’t even need to be an actual maximalist to wear these quirky shoes; your normcore white tee and blue jeans can be switched up instantly with an interesting pair. Take your cues from Bella Hadid, who showed up on the Cannes red carpet wearing Jacquemus’s double-decker heels, which give the illusion of two shoes stacked one on top of the other, with a plain white sheath dress. There’s also a mule and ballerina version that debuted at the French designer’s La Casa show just last week.
Hadid isn’t the only It girl wearing shoes worth a double take—Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Sienna Miller, and Naomi Campbell have all sported Schiaparelli’s anatomical shoes, while Zendaya swapped her Tabi ballerinas for custom white Loewe pumps featuring pin-thin heels, each one piercing a tennis ball, for the Challengers press tour.
If you’re looking to add a little fun to your shoe closet, look no further. Here are The Nod’s picks below:
