Photo: Courtesy of Alejandro Ingelmo
“It’s my first real presentation, outside of my showroom, so I wanted to keep it really simple and precise,” shoe designer and fourth-generation cobbler Alejandro Ingelmo said at his Milk Studios presentation. “For me, less is more.” Not necessarily what you’d expect to hear from someone whose client roster includes Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, and Britney Spears. (For those maximalists, at least, he obliged with the occasional Swarovski Elements-crystal embellishment.)
Nor was Ingelmo’s simple really all that simple. He showed towering leather platform sandals and sharply angled ankle boots in black, nude, silver, and gold—not exactly hop-on-the-subway fare. But he’s conscious of comfort; he’s a runner himself and often spotted in New Balances when he’s not wearing his own leather high-tops—so he’s done thick-strap flat sandals, too.
You’ll have to wait for spring to snatch up the new version of his best-selling Thriller, a gravity-defying platform that’s a blend of sexy straps and futuristic metallic leather. If you need to get your Ingelmo fix now, you can check out the Helmut Lang and Chris Benz Spring shows, both of which feature AI collabs. Or you can just head down to his recently opened boutique on Wooster in Soho.—Laurie Trott