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About a year ago, some rumblings started to emerge about bags. Within fashion circles, people started questioning their necessity — your wallet’s on your phone and your lipstick can fit in your pocket, so who really needs another thing to carry? Besides, we all have enough baggage anyway.
In its nascent stages, the argument was articulated by Puck’s Lauren Sherman, who, in her newsletter Line Sheet, wrote, “Nobody wants to carry a purse anymore.” She continued, “Bags are ugly. Bags communicate too much about status. Bags are heavy. Bags are annoying… Please, everyone needs to acknowledge that bags are out of fashion, and hopefully that’ll explain away some of the luxury crisis.”
The crisis Sherman’s referring to is the price hikes almost every luxury brand has implemented over the last couple of years. Global research firm Bernstein found that between 2020 and 2023, luxury prices rose 36 per cent on average, with some major houses increasing their prices by up to 59 per cent. This has seen more accessible ranges like shoes, bags and accessories become unattainable for the aspirational customer — typically the largest customer base of major houses — and in turn, result in slower growth and a shrinking audience for these categories.
Bags have been hit particularly hard. In 2014, a leather Fendi Baguette was $1570 USD. Today, they cost around $4011 USD. Interestingly though, the Fendi Baguette’s popularity hasn’t wavered — people are just getting it in different places. The RealReal’s annual report revealed that demand for the Fendi Baguette has increased 10 times what it was in 2016. The report also showed that the second-hand market is growing two to three times faster than the primary one. There is one category seemingly unaffected by recent luxury stalling, though: shoes.
Euromonitor International estimates that the luxury footwear sector will generate $40 billion by 2027 — 29 per cent more than in 2022. And on the runways this season, it seemed the designers were well aware of the category’s importance. Shoes were about as far from an afterthought as they could get, swinging from flamboyant to fancy to downright freaky.
There’s a precedent for funky footwear’s demand. When the contrast-toe cap mules and croc-embossed slingbacks from Matthiew Blazy’s Chanel debut at spring/summer 2026 finally landed in boutiques earlier this year, they caused a frenzy, selling out within weeks the world over. The sculptural fairytale-inspired heels he presented at the house’s autumn/winter 2026 haute couture show were met with similar enthusiasm, and the leather heel caps he showed for Cruise 2026/27 — while divisive — got people talking. This season, he pushed the boundaries again, making mules out of mesh, creating sock boots from a patterned knit and sending the silhouettes in strappier, more dainty directions.
Blazy was hardly the only one. At Givenchy, Sarah Burton’s knee-high boots were worn with a zip right up the middle left undone, creating a slouchy, leg warmer-like silhouette. She repeated the front zip on mules too, while elsewhere, oversized pompoms in Burton’s beloved primary colours adorned wedges.
CHANEL
Patent Calfskin Mules
MELISSA x GANNI
Ruffled Kitten Heel Sandals
CULT GAIA
Ria Sandals
YUME YUME
Pink Love Mule Heeled Sandals
Loewe’s caviar beading found its way onto a pair of floral patterned mules, Dries Van Noten adorned its shoes with a magpie collection of beads and embellishment, Prada opted for bows, Burberry went with buttons and pailettes. At Saint Laurent, shoe designer Corrado De Biase created vertiginous gilded stilettos that took their cues from snakes: twisted serpentine heels, gold snakeskin, fine chain straps and oversized cabochons at their centre.
Shoes, it seems, have become a playground for designers. A place for experimentation, for dialling up the creativity to 11, to having a bit of fun. And it makes sense. These are the products most likely to sell, so why wouldn’t you want the fullest, most creative and out-there expression of a brand to be how people experience it in the wild? Putting your best foot forward, etcetera.
The post It’s Official, Shoes Are The New Bags appeared first on ELLE.
