Earlier this week, Katie Holmes took her place on the red carpet at the American Image Awards, posing for the assembled photographers. The event was convened to honor fashion power players like Adam Goldenberg of Fabletics, Zac Posen of Gap, and Nina Flood of Timberland with statuettes that could just as feasibly have been presented to the actress herself. Holmes’s influence on what style-conscious women want to wear has done just as much—or so I am told by the publicists who dress her—to bolster the sector’s bottom line.
Consider the proto-quiet luxury bradigan she wore in 2019, which, upon her being photographed hailing a cab in Manhattan, sold out almost instantly and catapulted its then relatively unknown maker, Khaite, to global success. And here she was again, in a look with just as much street appeal: a custom tuxedo from Gap Studio, anchored by a pair of patent so-called “glove shoes” by Herbert Levine. So named for their second-skin fit, they’re characterized by a high vamp scooping around the arch of the foot. Concealing a more immodest cleavage of toes at a time when push-up bras are on the up a la Addison Rae and Olivia Rodrigo, these sensible heels are but one example of fashion’s swing towards prim, proper footwear.
Such styles proliferated across the spring 2026 runways, including at Toteme and Courrèges, Wales Bonner and Céline, Proenza Schouler and Stella McCartney. Matthieu Blazy’s form-fitting take on Chanel’s classic two-toned court shoes saw fashion editors storm its Rue Cambon boutique when they dropped midway through Paris Fashion Week—among them British Vogue contributing editor Olivia Singer, who spoke of the trend’s subversive appeal. “Far from tradwife regression, the re-emergence of classic heels somewhat subverts the archetype by virtue of their context,” she wrote, suggesting that ladylike pumps need not be resigned to a British afternoon tea room, but are equally well-suited to quad biking, raving, or even fending off a flash storm of paparazzi on the red carpet.