This Shoe Color Trend Is Chicer Than Black, Burgundy, and Brown
Kaia Gerber agrees.

All throughout my elementary school days, I wore a uniform, and part of that uniform stated that I could only wear shoes in one of three colors: black, brown, and navy. As the fashion contrarian I am (and always have been), I chose the latter, a choice that put me at odds with basically everyone at my school. It didn't matter, though. I loved my navy-blue ballet flats and wore them even when I wasn't in class. When elementary school ended, however, my navy flats didn't join me. In fact, I never really thought to wear the color in footwear form again, and black, brown, and burgundy shoes all took precedence. That was until recently when a few styles began popping up in the elegant shade, helping me remember why I favored it way back when.
On Kaia Gerber: Repetto Cendrillon Ballerina Flats ($300)
Alaïa and Miu Miu are both members of the navy-blue shoe club—as are classic shoemakers like Manolo Blahnik and Gianvito Rossi. My favorite pair? The Cendrillon Flats from Repetto, every French woman's go-to brand for comfortable yet elegant shoes. I'm not the only person who holds them near and dear. Kaia Gerber, who frequents the Cendrillon Flats in a variety of colors, also has a navy-blue pair, which she wore this week while preparing for a New Play Reading Series she's participating in at Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
The model and actress styled her flats effortlessly with a matching athletic skort, a red T-shirt, and a black sweatshirt on top. The outfit could've easily been worn with sneakers, but her choice of footwear added a sense of formality to it that sneakers wouldn't have. Even so, the same shoes could easily be dressed up further by switching out the skort for a pair of white jeans or black trousers and changing from a sweatshirt into a sweater or white blouse.
Shop the shoe color trend that's chicer than black, burgundy, and brown below. Trust someone who's been wearing navy-blue shoes since the fourth grade—they're really that good.
Shop navy-blue shoes:
Eliza Huber is an NYC-based senior fashion editor who specializes in trend reporting, brand discovery, and the intersection of sports and fashion. She joined Who What Wear in 2021 from Refinery29, the job she took after graduating with a business degree from the University of Iowa. She's launched two columns, Let's Get a Room and Ways to Wear; profiled Dakota Fanning, Diane Kruger, Katie Holmes, Gracie Abrams, and Sabrina Carpenter; and reported on everything from the relationship between Formula One and fashion to the top runway trends each season. Eliza lives on the Upper West Side and spends her free time researching F1 fashion imagery for her side Instagram accounts @thepinnacleoffashion and @f1paddockfits, watching WNBA games, and scouring The RealReal for discounted Prada.
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