As New York Fashion Week resumes its in-person season for spring ’22, so have its footwear collaborations. In the past, partnerships have run the gamut, from Ugg appearances at Eckhaus Latta to Teva takeovers at the likes of Anna Sui, Jonathan Cohen and more. Then there were the ultra-glam collabs from years past, including Giuseppe Zanotti with Christian Cowan, Christian Louboutin with Naeem Khan, and Manolo Blahnik with Carolina Herrera and many more. In a city where footwear production is the exception, NYFW’s shoe collaborations have become something of a tradition.
This season, the collaborations are a bit more unexpected — and partnered with new names and emerging designers. Here, a look at the footwear collabs populating New York Fashion Week’s spring ’22 season.
Brother Vellies and Sergio Hudson
After making history dressing both Vice President Kamala Harris and former First Lady Michelle Obama for the Presidential Inauguration in January, Hudson kept his momentum going with a see-now, buy-now fall ’21 showing on Thursday that featured more of his combination power suiting and body-conscious dresses, paired with matching knee boots and ankle wrap pumps, done by designer Aurora James’s Brother Vellies. And true to Hudson’s buy-now model, the shoes are also now available on the Brother Vellies site.
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Brother Vellies Nightfall bootie, a collaboration with Sergio Hudson for fall ’21
George Esquivel and An Only Child
L.A.’s resident footwear maestro lent his expertise to Maxwell Osborne’s collection debut of An Only Child. For his new line, the Public School co-founder paired colorful, slightly retro sportswear-driven separates with a selection of Esquivel‘s men’s oxfords and women’s loafers, many of which were paired with striped athletic crew socks in white.
Clergerie and Gabriela Hearst
In a spring ’22 collection that went even deeper on artisan craftsmanship, Hearst tapped French heritage footwear maison Clergerie and its creative director David Tourniaire to to create a series of shoes using the brand’s signature raffia and cork (a material Hearst has already employed in her own footwear for its environmentally low impact) that punctuated her knitwear-heavy collection.
Dear Frances and Jason Wu
For the second season in a row, Wu went to designer Jane Frances of Dear Frances to create footwear for his collection. Last season, it was a series of brightly colored boots to match his statement coats and floaty dresses. This season, Frances created a series of super-strappy sandals — mostly flat and beach vacation ready — to complement the floaty (equally vacay appropriate floral frocks.
Teva and John Fleuvog with Anna Sui
Anna Sui’s obsession with Teva has been apparent for a few years now, with the designer sending a new version of the sport sandal down the runway (for spring ’20, she took the collaboration even further, partnering with Liberty London on a special print to go with the Flatform Universal style. Sui continued the collaboration (this time with raffia flowers) and also went back to John Fleuvog, another frequent footwear collaborator, for a series of fluorescent loafers, sandals and the Canadian shoe designer’s signature Munster heels.
Stay tuned for updates on more footwear collaborations from New York Fashion Week’s spring ’22 season.
