As the nights lengthen, Francesco Russo goes back to his old obsessions about the Eighties and Nineties, giving a new reading to the empowering, sexy footwear that is his signature to focus on a moment of absolute freedom.
Revisiting the trends of the time, his lace boots are the perfect underwear-as-outerwear nod, while lace-up boots read like both an invitation and a warning: the woman wearing them is no wallflower. Her foot sheathed in a high vamp pump, she treats the streets like a catwalk. After all, she owns them both.
Lifted from masculine accessories, a chain slingback, reminiscent of the ID tags– exchanged as vows between lovers or statements of unassailable identity.
The iconic Francesco Russo flame design, with its vertiginous heel, coalesces more than ever in red snakeskin, gold nappa, and black lace. Studs perforate the seminal strappy sandals of the Nineties, expertly spliced into the leather so that only the point pierces the surface of the shoe. Imagine Cindy Lauper rocking the low cowgirl boot, or lacing up the heeled bootie.
In revisiting the switch from Working to Power Girl, Francesco Russo taps into the pivotal moment when freedoms multiplied and culture looked to the past to invent the future—a moment that bears striking similarities to today.