The One Shoe To Buy This Spring

Sometimes there’s a shoe so easy to wear and effortlessly cool it earns a following the instant it lands on the runway. It shouldn’t surprise us that this season the footwear-of-the-moment has made a prodigal return from the ’90s. Along with slip dresses and a nod to all things grunge, the shoe to buy this spring is the mule, or its flat sister, the slide.

It is this backless trend, first appearing in the 16th century and resurging again in the 1950s and 1990s, that is taking the shoe world by storm; they are practically everywhere! I really do mean that — you’d be hard-pressed to find a designer who didn’t show the easy slide on the runway or a street style star who isn’t rocking mules IRL. And why not? With walkable block heels or flat soles, they’re so much cooler than the clogs from your early adulthood. The trend ranges from open-backed sneaker styles by Vince to statement-making and fringe-topped styles by Jenni Kayne and Stuart Weitzman. Scroll down and take your pick!