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For anyone looking to make an investment purchase off the back of all of this, however, allow me to direct your attention to Meghan’s footwear during a trip to Colegio La Giralda in Sante Fe on August 18: namely, a pair of two-tone Chanel slingbacks, a shoe that, when spotted by fashion editors, is met with the sort of “Ooohs!” reserved elsewhere for, say, newborn babies or Internet Boyfriends.
As much a part of the Chanel DNA as the 2.55 or the tweed jacket, it’s Coco who introduced the style in 1957, reclaiming the slingback from risqué affiliations. (In midcentury America, the silhouette had become a favorite of pin-ups of the Bettys Grable and Page variety, an association that Hollywood had beamed across the Atlantic.) Mademoiselle partnered with bottier Raymond Massaro to rework the shoe, lowering and flattening its stiletto to a five-centimeter heel, squaring its toe slightly, and choosing a beige body (to lengthen the leg) and a black cap (to hide any scuffs).
It’s Karl Lagerfeld, however, who introduced the ballerina style worn by the Duchess both this week and at the Invictus Games last September. This particular version of the show debuted in 1984 via a campaign fronted by Inès de la Fressange and shot by Helmut Newton. Naturally, it’s proved a bestseller in the 40 years since thanks to its perfect blend of practicality and polish—which, in the end, has always been Meghan Markle’s sartorial MO.
This article was originally published by British Vogue.
