Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
Last summer, the glove shoe took the fashion industry's eyeballs, stretched them open, and made early adopters think, really think, about that line between "something new!" and "aesthetically displeasing."
ICYMI, the slipper-like shoe is essentially a ballet flat with a higher vamp, meaning it covers more of the front of your foot. Madness struck when Céline sent glove shoes down its spring 2015 runway (pictured in slide 1, above) and picked up steam with Maryam Nassir Zadeh's cult favorite 'Roberta' heel (slide 3), Rachel Comey's 'Calder' (slide 2), and pretty much everything from made-in-Argentina brand Martiniano (slide 5), which counts Net-a-Porter, Totokaelo, and La Garçonne among its many, many stockists. (Fashionista is pretty sure designer Martiniano Lopez Crozet termed the look "glove shoe.")
After a year simmering in fashionland, the kind of ugly fash-un shoe has blossomed in to a prettier version of itself (read: more commercially viable), with brands from Lanvin to Topshop offering a flavor of glove shoe. In this moment between boots and sandals, they aren't a bad footwear option to consider. See then of the best in the gallery above, starting at $30.