This weekend, Kylie Jenner celebrated her professional best friend—and TikTok mukbang associate—Stassie Karanikolaou’s 27th birthday in a Los Angeles nightclub. But zoom in to the various photographs that have been circulated from that Grey Goose and True Religion-sponsored evening and it seems Jenner was perhaps honoring an even more cherished companion: the libidinous, thong-toed stiletto.
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She wore Sergio Rossi’s Alocasia kitten heels—French-tipped toes splayed between circulation-stemming straps—with a diagonally-ruched Defaïence bodycon dress and an outsized leather jacket. Much like the big toe-baring Sportmax boots she wore to Paris Fashion Week or the Jacquemus knee-highs she pulled for a pap walk in March, these are not so much shoes as they are lingerie for the feet. To step out in a pair of these heels necessitates the same level of pre-date primping as your most provocative G-strings. Nails buffed, skin moisturized, heels descaled.
See also: Simone Rocha and Jean Paul Gaultier’s take on Pleasers or those anatomical, trompe-l’œil Schiaparelli pumps that have outfitted Kylie’s most recent outings at couture week. It’s all part of a new seduction that emerged on this season’s catwalks wherein the human toe was leveraged as an unexpected erogenous zone with one-digit socks and toe-cleavaged loafers. There is a jolt of so-wrong-it’s-right-ness here, a mental aphrodisiac that inspires equal parts repulsion and intrigue. Kylie Jenner—being the most experimental dresser among the Kardashians—understands the pull of a perverse shoe almost as much as she does a hip-hugging bodycon dress.
This article first appeared on British Vogue.
