Omg! Those Prada Shoes.

and off on a mission I went.

Over the last few weeks, I went from not even thinking about the new Prada shoes (from their A/W 2023 collection), to seeing them on some of the most stylish feet in the industry.

That’s what tends to happen in this fashion digital world, and I get swept into it occasionally. This was that occasion.

Last week, I was invited to an event at Leandra Medine Cohen's home that she hosted with Substack. Upon entering her beautiful NYC apartment, all the guests removed their shoes, leaving quite the visual feast in the entryway. We all spent a few minutes talking about the shoes, and among the assortment were two pairs of the Prada shoes.

The white pair belonged to Jess Graves, the author of The Love List, one of my favorite Substacks. The pollen yellow pair belonged to the insanely cool (both online and IRL), Courtney Grow. 

I posted the above photo on my Instagram stories, and the comments would not stop rolling in: “This reminds me of that Sex and the City Episode…” and “OMG! Those Prada shoes!”

I know, I know!

A few days later, we had none other than Eva Chen, who was in Milan attending the Prada show, wearing the “wing” version in the grey color. 

After her, Arielle from Something Navy posted them (in black), and a few hours later, Morgan Stewart.

That was it for me.

Naturally, I did what I usually do when this fixation happens: I went on an investigation of my own. I ended up visiting two different stores: 5th Avenue and Madison Ave. My first stop was 5th Avenue, where they had little inventory and nothing close to my size. My next stop was Madison Avenue, and the only pair they had in my size was the above-nude pair.

My initial reaction was, “ooo! they kind of hurt.” This particular style felt stiff and was cutting into my foot. Do they break in with wear? Maybe, but they weren’t an off-the-bat comfortable shoe. I should mention that I’ve been told that the heel style (rather than the slingback) is more comfortable, but I haven't tried them on myself.

(Side note: I found they ran true to size. I wear a us 8.5, a 39 in most European sizing and the 39 was perfect).

Coat: Frankie Shop (last year) | Denim: Sèzane (I sized up 2 sizes, but they’re fab jeans) | Bag: By Far | Phone case

Texts with my best friend. The “maybe the heels” portion of this text is me saying that perhaps the other style is more comfortable.

Stylewise: I’ve (clearly) loved them on others. They really are quite beautiful and look like little works of art. On my foot, though? It wasn’t love. My inner monologue went along the lines of “okay, I don’t think these are for me, but I’m glad we did this.” 

That’s not to say that if money were no object, I wouldn’t track them down in grey (the color I had on my mind) because I probably would. I know that for me, I’d rather put that amount towards something that’s an immediate “oh yesss! I need this in my life.”

All that to say, even if there’s something that’s utterly fabulous on another person, it’s perfectly okay to admire said item from afar. Not everything can be for everyone.

In this case, that’s what I plan to do, but it was fun while it lasted.