A brisk walk out of her Paris hotel on March 12 was all Bella Hadid needed to prove bootcut jeans aren't just for her Texas ranch. The morning after storming Saint Laurent's Paris Fashion Week runway in a lace naked dress and pointed-toe heels, Hadid woke up ready to upend everyone's denim styling expectations with help from a resurgent vintage shoe trend.
The model tapped Vivaia's satin Derby flats—defined by an elegant curved toebox and coquette ribbons for laces—to dress up her pair of down-to-earth blue jeans. Most people (Bella, deep in her cowgirl era, included) would pair bootcut denim with structured ankle boots or a rodeo-inspired style. Clearly, she saw the potential for high-contrast, high-reward styling instead.
Her shoes gracefully peeked out beneath the puddling hem of her jeans, coordinating with a black wool coat, black turtleneck, and teeny-tiny sunglasses. Saint Laurent's Sac de Jour tote, the definitive favorite designer bag in Hadid's never-ending closet, put a rich-girl final touch on the outfit.
Situated at the corner of ballet slippers favored by Sandy Liang and Repetto and the 19th-century Derby styles returning to runways like Miu Miu's just this week, Bella Hadid's $129 pair is an unexpectedly accessible entry to her style file. Most days, she spends her Ôrebella fragrance checks on $1,250 Saint Laurent boots or The Row's $1,190 heeled loafers. If she's going to branch out into an affordable shoe, it would be in a reworked version of the Derby: they're predicted to be one of the biggest footwear trends of the coming year.
The sweetly antique aesthetic of Vivaia's, however, is right in step with Hadid's usual wardrobe. She's sourced everything from rare Jean Paul Gaultier tees to Tom Ford-era Gucci—just for similar strolls from hotels to a black car and back.
Oftentimes, corralling denim into the past-meets-present mix would find Hadid reaching for a rising sneaker or a cowgirl boot. If the model can make even a feminine satin flat work with these blue jeans, anything can. Let's see her try bootcut denim with the boat shoe trend next.
