The best shoes at Paris Fashion Week were all about drama

At Saint Laurent this season, Anthony Vaccarello painted the town gold with a collection of looks gilded from head to toe. Midi skirts, cropped jackets, cocktail dresses, and trousers looked as if they were dipped in metal and glistened under the lights, some simultaneously with the Eiffel Tower’s top-of-the-hour sparkle show. Vaccarello included not a single bag on the runway, but he made up for it with a selection of shoes that was even more lavish than the clothing.

A closer look at Vaccarello’s footwear reveals decadent heels dripping with gold chains and embellished with floral brooches. One pair was capped at a pointed toe with shiny metal, while the heels of another pair were sculpted into a snake. While designers in New York went the minimalist route with their shoes (some showing styles that were barely there at all), this kind of ornate footwear was all over Paris Fashion Week.

Saint Laurent Spring/Summer 2027

At Dior, just a few hours ahead of the Saint Laurent show, Jonathan Anderson offered strappy kitten-heeled sandals in shiny silver leather that were decorated with pearls, rhinestones, and bows. Another slightly higher pair, in copper python, featured zipper motifs around the ankle and across the toe straps. With this collection, Anderson spoke about incorporating his predecessors’ codes in order to build upon the house’s existing language. These shoes in particular recall Dior’s John Galliano era.

Dior Spring/Summer 2027

At Dries Van Noten the next day, Julian Klausner found his footing at the brand after taking the helm in December 2024 following Van Noten’s departure. The collection was touted as his best yet and featured colour, collectable prints, and layering that has industry insiders still pining over the looks days later. To accent the ready-to-wear, Klausner showed equally maximalist footwear—the standout was a pump covered in a rainbow of rhinestones. Balenciaga’s Pierpaolo Piccioli exercised his take on the trend with a classic thong heel that featured a thick gold chain woven into its straps, mimicking the jewellery he showed with the collection.

Elsewhere at Loewe and August Barron, footwear was equally difficult to ignore. At the former, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez presented “jingle jangle shoes,” as stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson put it on her Instagram story. The style itself was simple—a black strappy heel—but it was accessorised with what could only be described as a charm bracelet, dangling with dice, keys, whistles, berries, and more. August Barron designers Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø leaned into sparklemaxxing for spring, with ’70s-style, sky-high platforms with all-over crystals.

Dries Van Noten, Loewe Spring/Summer 2027

Paris isn’t the only city where designers went all out with shoes. In Milan, Dolce & Gabbana’s leopard slingbacks and open-toe heels featured an array of embellished flowers, while a pair of knee-high boots got the opulent treatment, in gold brocade that was covered in colourful stones and antique medallions. After seasons of quiet luxury and modern minimalism, a pivot back toward maximalism was inevitable. Footwear and accessories in general are an easy way to dip toes back into uncharted waters. Only time will tell if the industry is ready to go all in.

Images: LAUNCHMETRICS SPOTLIGHT

This article originally appeared on harpersbazaar.com/US in October 2026.

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