During Martin Margiela’s spring 1989 debut runway show, held in a Paris fringe theater, veiled models looked like an eminence of kentaurides clomping down a white cotton runway in red paint dipped split-toe Tabi boots paired with pointy-shouldered slim jackets and long-line skirts slit up the back. More than three decades later, in January 2024, John Galliano would send a cast of underworld characters, corseted and bobbling like dolls down a rain-soaked runway, many in shoes co-created by another visionary who has a thing for red bottoms—Christian Louboutin.
Together, Galliano and Louboutin dreamed up a trio of sensuous crimson-soled Tabi styles. There’s the crystal mesh Bridiela Una Strass pump and patent and textured leather Loubiella sandal, both set on a vertiginous Christian Louboutin 100mm heel, and the patent or crystal mesh Marlougiela ballerina. This mind meld of cerebral and sultry aesthetics might seem unexpected, but the designers have known each other since the beginning of their careers in ’90s Paris. “John and I met quite early, and I was always in awe of his ability to blend high art with fashion,” says Louboutin. “He had this understanding of how fashion could transcend clothing and become an experience.”
The designers played with toe cleavage—not in the conventional Louboutin sense of revealing the hollows between toes via a low cut vamp—but instead by tweaking the shape of the Tabi’s split-toe to create a rounder, almost heart-shaped halo around the big toe meant to look like a breast. “The full-coverage split-toe in the cordate silhouette really highlights the curve and arch of the foot, creating a sensual reveal,” explains Louboutin. “The idea was about mixing two different worlds: the more minimalist side of Margiela with the seductive, feminine curves of Louboutin. We wanted to feminize the Tabi, but not in an obvious sense.”
The Maison Margiela x Christian Louboutin capsule collection, available March 12, gives a subtle frisson to an infamous shoe that some might question whether it has lost its edge. The Tabi boot was once a rather niche footwear style with a cult following of cloven-hoofed fans among the downtown demimonde, but in the past few years seemingly every celebrity from Kylie Jenner to Dua Lipa and Cardi B has been photographed wearing Tabi boots, and for every sort of occasion. Pedro Pascal wore them on the red carpet at a film premiere, while Zendaya took them for a spin at the mall. Even fictional ringard influencer Emily wore Tabi boots in Paris.
Kylie Jenner in Paris, France, 2023
“The two most important details are the shoulder and the shoe; everything in between I fill up,” Maison Margiela’s founder Martin Margiela said of the Tabi’s origins in the 2019 documentary Martin Margiela: In His Own Words, one of the rare interviews given by the elusive Belgian designer who had retired from the label a decade prior. “You can’t imagine the stress when you want to create a shoe as never seen before. You go a little bit crazy.”
A still from Martin Margiela: In his own Words, a film by Reiner Holzemer, that shows Martin Margiela’s sketch of the tabi boot.
Margiela might have been overstating “never seen before” a little bit: like many of his great design innovations, the Tabi brilliantly deconstructs an existing style to challenge traditional ideas of beauty and garment construction. In this case, Japanese split-toe tabi socks which have been worn with thonged footwear such as zori and geta to promote holistic balance as far back as the 15th century. Margiela had recently returned from a trip to Tokyo where he was struck by the casual elegance of construction workers’ tabi socks paired with rubber-soled jika-tabi thongs.
Aristocratic women parading past a shop, Tokyo, 18th century. Handcoloured ukiyo-e woodblock print by Toyokuni Utagawa from Picture Book of the Modern Forms and Figures, Tokyo, 1916.
He determined to make a pre-styled option and he Italian craftsman Mr. Zagato took on the challenge of creating a custom last to realize Margiela’s split-toe sock boot vision. The Tabi boot soon became a runway fixture mostly because the designer’s shoestring budget prevented him from commissioning new lasts each season, so he repurposed old Tabi runway samples by painting them in new colors. “I had no other choice than to continue with [the Tabi] if I wanted shoes,” Margiela has said.
A model walks Martin Margiela's Fall 1996 RTW runway collection in painted tabi shoes.
Today, Tabis are more than just a matter of necessity, they’re an aspirational luxury item. In 2023, when a social media manager who had a pair of Tabi Mary Janes purloined by her handle-bar mustachioed Tinder date went viral on TikTok, it helped Tabis reach a whole new audience. Tabis are available in very imaginable style from loafers and clogs to sneakers and ballet flats that could pass as classic Chanel save for the cleft toe, and now the Christian Louboutin x Maison Margielas. But one thing this decidedly jolie-laide footwear style has never been seen as until now is, well, sexy.
