While we’re cheering on the return of the basic slingback pump silhouette, we had been equally intrigued by designers who reworked slingback elements into completely different styles. At Chanel, slingback ankle straps were spotted on jewel-encrusted ballet flats. Versace added clear blink-and-you’ll-miss-it slingback details to its lucite block heels and Zimmermann blended mules, clogs, and slingbacks for a sweetly casual take on the pattern. We’d been hoping the knight in shining armor styles at Jean Paul Gaultier, Balenciaga, and Georges Chakra weren’t a Couture Fashion Week one-off and it seems like 2024 won’t disappoint us. Breastplates, chainmail, and structured metallics brought the medieval battlefield onto the runway and into our 2024 ‘match rotation thanks to designers like Rabanne, Coperni, Alexander McQueen, Ralph Lauren, and Isabel Marant. The most oft-spotted development of the 2024 Spring/Summer runways may just be the 2024 fashion development that is undergone probably the most drastic evolution—sheer dressing.
