I want to be a Marc Jacobs doll—literally. The designer has been sending models down the runway in blazers and skirts with extreme puffed-up proportions, paired with cartoonish shoes that look as though they were peeled off a Barbie’s foot and then supersized. Their eyes are covered in eye shadow so sparkly it reflects like wax, and their eyelashes are so spindly they appear painted on. In the photos, each model stands completely straight, arms and legs firmly planted, as though waiting to be cut out from a magazine and dressed in paper clothing. This look appeared on the spring and fall 2024 runways and returned for spring 2025.
I often see something on the runway and covet it instantly, but it’s less about becoming the woman the designer is creating for and more about finding ways to make beautiful things work within the wardrobe I already own. These Marc Jacobs shows were different. I wanted to become the doll. I wanted to carry a bag so big it looks like Photoshop. I wanted to button up a blazer with buttons larger than the size of my hand. I wanted to stomp around the city in funny doll shoes.
Thankfully, the last thing became a reality when the brand commercialized and released the aptly named Doll Pump. The shoes first appeared on the fall 2024 runway. It’s a Mary Jane style with exaggerated, ridiculous proportions, immediately reminiscent of Minnie Mouse and Betty Boop. Before I truly understood the power of a good shoe, these were what my childhood doodles of footwear looked like. Marc Jacobs’s take also features a huge gold statement-buckle closure, which feels extremely whimsical—and correct.
When I walked into the Marc Jacobs store to purchase a pair, the sales associate told me she had recently bought some for herself. The size 40 I purchased was the last pair available. “I was surprised people weren’t buying them as much when we got them in a couple of months ago,” she said. “But now we’ve been seeing lots of girls come in and get them ahead of the fall.” I said everyone wants to be a doll this fall and she nodded. "I guess so!"
Decided to go full Minnie Mouse for my first look in the doll pumps with a black mini Miu Miu dress covered in red flowers.
The shoes simply call for a leg pop at all times.
But genuinely after a summer with no song of the summer, just one year after the messy chaotic fun that was Brat summer, I’m feeling the need to dissociate. Everyone I know feels the same. I want to dress like a doll to feel the stillness of being inanimate. I wish to be locked away in a toy chest somewhere, blithely unaware of what’s happening outside of it.
And yet, that’s impossible. So I settle for dressing like a doll instead, with silly little doll pumps that bring joy not by drowning out everything going on in the world right now but by giving me something to laugh at every time I look at my feet. The tips are a little pointed, and I can’t help but imagine my younger self drawing the sharpest point on a piece of paper with a pencil as I sketch out the top of a shoe in the margins of my english class notes.
But what I love most about the doll pumps is how they look good with...everything? Including this top I recently thrifted and my favorite silk Roberto Cavalli skirt.
The side profile of the heel is so fun I kept finding myself doing a turn out.
Once again...the doll pumps demand a hip pop.
Fun shoes always make me giggle and kick my feet; but not all of them do so comfortably. Thankfully, the Marc Jacobs doll pumps bring a sense of both mental and physical euphoria. They don’t cause blisters. They don’t feel tight on my toes. They don’t even feel like heels at all. I think it’s the exaggerated proportions that allow for more give, versus the slim, slinky and strappy silhouette of a standard heel, which often make my feet feel vacuum sealed. Instead the doll pumps made me feel free. I used to pity Minnie Mouse, thinking she was stuck in a pair of heels forever. But now I understand why she always looked so happy. The weight of being a woman is at least somewhat alleviated if you’re in cartoon pumps that are easy to strut in.
I wanted to see how the pumps would look with fun socks and the result didn't disappoint. I opted for a chunky pair of baby blue socks to match my Eckhaus Latta snap bag in a similar shade and my Starface pimple patch.
Strutting in heels was my main goal for these pumps. I own a lot of kitten heels but not really a proper pair of pumps for when I want to dress up for a more formal occasion. A more standard sexy pump never felt right. I wanted something that felt a little less business. Something that had a bit of humor to it. Something that would look perfect with an evening dress but wouldn’t feel like it took itself so seriously. The doll pumps were the answer.
I was worried about how they'd feel on the uneven New York sidewalks, but they were durable and ready for anything.
I giggled to myself while out for dinner wearing these. I positioned them next to a normal sized chair, since on the first runway the Marc Jacobs Doll appeared on, models wearing the doll pumps were standing underneath a supersized folding chair.
But I also wanted to see how they held up in my day-to-day life. I probably won’t be throwing them on to walk my dog every morning but I definitely don’t feel like I need to wear these only when someone is betrothed. They are, ultimately, very big Mary Janes, which are some of my favorite shoes of all time. They go with anything, but especially with cute little dresses and chunky colored socks. In my eyes, they make every look a bit more girlish and a little bit more unexpected.
While these won't be my go-to dog walking shoe, they at least look good with my pug. And she definitely appreciated them as well.
I recently wore the doll pumps out to a casual double dinner date in Brooklyn. When my friend texted me asking what I was wearing, I told her that I would be wearing pumps that made me nearly as tall as my 6'2'' boyfriend but that there was no need for her to wear heels as well. I explained our date really didn't require such dressing up and that it was all in the name of fashion journalism. I needed to see how the doll pumps would hold up for a normal night out.
I was expecting the doll pumps to be photogenic but I wasn't expecting them to be the perfect accessory for a pug portrait.
I will say, walking in the doll pumps on a beautiful summer night in New York sparks joy. They do make me quite tall, so I had to be intentional with every step I took. But this also meant i was walking with particularly great posture, and someone even shouted that they loved my 'Barbie heels' from a car window as I crossed a street.
While waiting for my friend to get out of the bathroom at the restaurant, I realized that these shoes would definitely help me make friends if I was being mysterious and sitting on my own at the bar. A couple waiters and waitresses remarked on them as they walked by and I could only imagine how many more comments and compliments I would have gotten had I sat here all night.
Once my friend saw me at dinner, she couldn't stop gushing over the shoes. Before realizing that they were the Marc Jacobs doll pumps, she mentioned I looked like a supermodel because of the height that they gave me. This is obviously a comment I will take. She also pointed out that my text about my outfit made her worried she would feel underdressed but that the shoes felt more cool than formal. The chunky blue socks and vintage black Jean Paul Gaultier dress gave it a more punk vibe for sure, but they also aren't the kind of heels that intimidate.
Grabbing a scoop of ice cream on a summer night in my doll pumps definitely healed my inner child.
If anything, they actually initiated a ton of conversations. People kept approaching me to ask about the shoes. Someone even snapped a picture. While waiting in line for ice cream I overheard someone talking about the shoes to a friend, saying, "I just love how they look drawn on."
Perhaps my favorite thing about the pump isn't how good I look while walking in them but how good they look while I'm sitting and staring at them.
Eventually, I clocked 8,597 steps in the doll shoes, which is farther than some very standard flats have taken me. My boyfriend insisted we call a car because while the pumps were fun to walk in, they definitely aren't made for walking at a quick New York pace. I, of course, obliged. I was a doll after all—and sometimes dolls do have to be packed back up into their box after they're done playing. But if I learned anything while taking a walk in Marc Jacobs shoes, it's that a Marc Jacobs doll really does thrive on the streets of New York.
Shop the doll shoes below:
