Few footwear silhouettes have garnered the same mix of adoration and abhorrence as the Maison Margiela Tabi. Nowadays, there’s no shortage of outlandish, taste-affronting shoes - from MSCHF’s head-hurting Croc Big Yellow Boots to JW Anderson’s Wellipet Frog Clogs - but the split-toe Tabi was the original fugly-shoe provocateur.
At the Tabi’s debut in 1988, Martin Margiela sent white lab coat-wearing models down the Café de la Gare runway with the boots dipped in red paint, which left behind strange yet alluring red hoofprints. The shoe swiftly became a cult fashion piece, and essential sempahore to insider status.
