The ‘90s Shoe That Changed Everything

I spoke to the women who propelled the industry's era-changing shoe.

Claudia Schiffer wearing the slingback at the Prada fall 1995 show.

The Prada slingback from fall 1995 made a clack heard ‘round the world. You know the shoe. There’s the little bra strap that hugs the back of the heel, while the pilgrim loafer front adds a dose of office-ready reserve. The combination renders the shoe both ugly and sexy; somehow modest and titillating. To me this slingback has always epitomized the quality of jolie laide—there’s an incredible “this fucks” raunch to this shoe. Look at that closed toe with the lip of the tongue flicked upwards as if it is slightly aroused. Nasty! The 1.5” heel itself is your typical sensible standard black or a dark brown, but the leather is viscously brushed to a blistering shine. This is a lady with a bite, one who wears a pump that appears prim and proper from the front, but makes a cracking palm-to-ass sound as she walks away, baring her naked heels. 

One way to think about the appeal of fashion is in its ability to become a sort of living historical record: I remember that collection, I was front row for that show, I predicted that trend, I called in that sample. This is a shoe that was there. Take the Vogue August 1995 issue. In the Grace Coddington-styled shoot “The Strong Suit,” (page 185) the heel makes a cameo on the buffed soles of German super Nadja Auermann, posing in a demented cosplay of an uptown woman who has it all. In the slingback scene, Auermann is fastened into an obsidian Ralph Lauren skirt suit as she crosses a midtown street as if she is running an errand. A cute bike messenger cuts past her. Her foot is delicately lifted to show off that bitchy little 1.5 inch (if that!) practical pump. A vision of the perfect city–somehow that much more attainable thanks to that walkable, just-a-pinch-of-a heel. 

The slingback makes another cameo in the 10-page profile on Miuccia Prada “The Prada Principle” (page 199, by then Fashion News Editor Kate Betts). The shoot, also styled by Coddington, shows a wide-eyed Kristen McMenamy with a retro ‘60s bouffant, strutting around an optic white studio in the slingback with a double-breasted fire engine red coatdress. The next page (p. 209), Trish Goff sits on a reclining caramel leather office chair with her legs crossed; the slingback casually dangling from her foot.

Just a few months later these two shoots resurface in the Vogue November 1995 issue in “She’s Gotta Have It” from fashion writer Marina Rust. It’s an incredible piece: completely blasé, monied, and hilariously self-aware. In the story, Rust, a well-heeled Vogue gal about town, expresses a soul-engulfing longing for the shoe. “That article came about because I wrote Anna [Wintour] an email about it and I said, ‘We should do a story on waitlists because this woman at Prada told me, ‘Well, there’s a waitlist for it’. It’s coming in at six and a half. You better reserve that.’ I’m like, ‘I’m eight and a half’ and she’s like, ‘It’s a hot shoe, honey—Get it,’” Rust told me over the phone.