Statement Shoes Are the New It Bags, According to Fashion Insiders

4 min read

At Schiaparelli’s fall/winter 2026 show, models sauntered down the darkened, raised ’90s-style runway to the surreal tune of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman.” They wore twisted takes on suiting and beige gowns with supernatural padding. But even in the dreamlike world of Schiaparelli, what stood out most was a single pair of shoes: faux taxidermy kitten heels, replete with shockingly lifelike snarling cat heads, their eyes, whiskers, and tongues all strongly emoting.

Consider it the It Shoe renaissance: a fervent rebirth of the category as an art form. Somehow, in recent months, fashion traded bags for shoes as the objects du jour that really moved the needle. Shoes, right now, feel leaps and bounds above bags when it comes to innovation and creativity. Just look at Prada, which made its most extreme footwear in years for fall/winter 2026: Victorian-style boots covered in a collage of feathers and decadent, chandelier-studded low heels worthy of Marie Antoinette. If the tips of those crystal-covered shoes appeared to be a little frayed and stained, that was the point. After all, the collection emphasized the embodiment of real-life dressing, layering, and as a result, mess. Those subtle deconstructions were as vital to the shoe as the feather and rhinestone embellishment, like human-made glitches in an AI-dominated world.

Pumps, Chanel. Sculpture, Etienne Pottier.

This season also showcased museum-worthy shoes in spades: Dior’s sandals rivaled jewelry, with their colorful, graphic lily pads sprouting with bejeweled metal flowers. Creative director Jonathan Anderson has always had a thing for unusual footwear, but something felt more precious about it this season. Even the most conventional of silhouettes were injected with a punch of imagination on the runways. At Bottega Veneta, black leather ballerina Mary Janes came covered in a sea of pointy metal spikes. Elsewhere, Roger Vivier dug into the archives to reprise extra dramatic thigh-high boots, covered in zebra pony hair or decked in velvet and embellished with couture-level beading.

Shoes, Celine.

The quest for art-level shoes quickly became an Olympic-level sport under Matthieu Blazy’s first Chanel release, which, on the retail side, saw a new frenzy that revolved around shoes (rather than bags). Countless editors, influencers, and fashion fans all chased after the Bambi-speckled pony hair logo flats, many documenting the experience on social media. It’s a sign of the economy—designer shoes have traditionally always been more affordable than a bag—but also signals a wider cultural shift to statement, collectible shoes, happening right before our eyes. Many who are obsessing over Chanel are calling the pony hair flats pieces of fashion history.

Schiaparelli fall/winter 2026.

We undoubtedly live in weird times, and fashion has never had bigger, well, shoes to fill than it does now. In 2026, shoes give us identity, joy, and some kind of physical object that acts as a keepsake and transcends the body. “Most clothes, you take them off and they just crumple onto the ground like the discarded snakeskin, but shoes and bags are like little sculptures,” says Valerie Steele, director and chief curator of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 1999, she penned the classic Shoes: A Lexicon of Style.

Chanel Spring 2026 Couture

“I think that shoes have more of a sense of identity to them. We talk about ‘Walk a mile in my shoes,’” says Steele. She adds, “I think that ‘art shoes’ are very much a way of saying, ‘I am a special, artistic person.’ Whereas a handbag is still slightly contaminated with mercantile values. It’s really about where you carry your money around and it’s a very expensive accessory. They want something that’s special because everything is so commodified and mass-produced that you go to stores all over the world and it’s all the same stuff. People are looking so much for something that will be special and different.”

Teyana Taylor attends the Chanel fall/winter 2026 show.

Some brands are taking things a step further by pushing the bounds of shoe norms. Take, for instance, Margiela’s ankle boots with the front entirely cut away, or the knee-high boots with surreal windows across the bridge of the foot, which both debuted at the brand’s fall/winter 2026 collection in Shanghai. Other options appeared to float, or were raised off the ground but heel-less. Likewise, Hannah Rose Dalton and Steven Raj Bhaskaran of Matières Fécales continue to create gasp-inducing curved heels worn by Lady Gaga and FKA twigs, including some that look like an extension of a human leg.

Maybe in 2026, artful shoes represent something bigger. When Sex and the City first aired in 1998, Carrie Bradshaw’s dedication to shoes was firmly representative of so many things beyond an object to be worn. Cue her lament, “I’ve spent $40,000 on shoes and I have no place to live? I will literally be the old woman who lived in her shoe!” In the SATC world, now remembered fondly by fashion girls, shoes represented independence, choosing one’s own destiny and putting oneself first. Carrie’s Manolos and Jimmy Choos—back then positioned as frivolous, whimsical or impractical—sparked her own kind of joy.

Lily pad shoes at Dior’s fall/winter 2026 show.

“Shoe shopping has been described to me by many women as the highest form of shopping,” adds Steele. “It’s all pleasure. You could be an 80-year-old Marlene Dietrich and still have great-looking legs and slip on those high heels.” In 2026, we certainly crave all the joy we can get; maybe putting on a pair of museum-worthy shoes is the Cinderella glass slipper effect we need.

Lead image credit: Pumps, Chanel.