“Chameleon” is proving to be a wise name choice for Fendi’s bags and shoes alike. Considering experimenting with a high-heeled loafer, but can’t commit? Toying with the menswear trend, but refuse to clobber around in oxfords? Or just craving a fall shoe to cause a possible wardrobe upset? These barely-tapered leather pumps might be your answer. With menswear-inspired perforation, a chunky heel (kind of nineties, right?), and transition-perfect cutouts, these hybrid shoes are so oddly intriguing, I can’t stop inspecting them.
To get a full understanding of what you’re looking at, you have to break them down. The toe is right off a man’s dress shoe; at 2.5″, the heel is too high to be called an oxford, too low to be deemed a pump; the dainty, Mary Jane straps are femme; and the cutout placements are arbitrary and whimsical. The he/she of shoes! Weird and funky, they might be the single exciting piece needed to turn your wardrobe upside down, in a good way. I’m betting you don’t have anything like this in your closet, which is enough reason to buy. It takes guts to walk on the bizarre side, but if you’ve got “it,” you don’t need guts. At Saks Fifth Avenue for $835.
Pair with: Play schoolhouse rock with Alexander McQueen’s pleated wool-felt miniskirt, in two-tone navy and cream. On Net-a-Porter for $780.
