With an anti-stiletto sisterhood of sorts—Rihanna, Hailee Steinfeld, Shailene Woodley—pairing Robert Clergerie lug-soled oxfords and raffia creepers with everything from denim cutoffs to cocktail dresses, the original maker of brogues for women finds itself firmly back in the spotlight. “Shoes carry you through life,” opines women’s-wear designer Roland Mouret, who’s done double duty as the French footwear brand’s creative director since 2011, and who first worked with its eponymous founder, on art direction and styling, in the ’80s. “They show the reality of how girls live fashion now.” And what’s a moment these days without an official hashtag? Mouret enlisted his friend, Man Repeller‘s Leandra Medine—for whom the distinct pleasures of chunky footwear are very much on-brand—to host a #ClergerieGirls contest, inviting followers to share snapshots of their take on the Gallic aesthetic for the chance to win a trip to Paris Fashion Week and the opportunity to design a Clergerie shoe, with the winner to be named February 1 (tune in to @themanrepeller for the announcement). “There was a distinct sense of style and sense of humor about each of them,” Medine says of the four finalists culled from a pool of 550.
NEW GEOMETRY: A Bay Area advertising producer by day, Szeto is also an accomplished rock climber whose Instagram serves as a visual diary of her adventures in the northern California wilderness and beyond. “Bold lines, shapes, and volume” are key, Szeto says, to her perfectly framed selfies.
KATY SHAYNE, 29, @KATYSHAYNE
REBOOT: “I came across my first pair of Clergeries at the vintage store Moss,” says this Austin-based, West Texas–bred photographer. “They were these supergothic wedge boots, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, what are these?’ I fell in love.” Like her personal style, Shayne’s fashion and fine-art snaps also contain an element of whimsicality.
GEEK CHIC: A digital marketing manager in her native Turkey, Yildiz moved to New York four years ago to study English. “Now people are mostly interested in what I wear,” says Yildiz, whose blog name and handle is a play on “Silicon Alley,” the metonym for Manhattan’s tech start-up sphere. “Fashion is a playground, and I would like to be as free as I possibly can.”
PROVENANCE: Newport Beach, California
VICTOR, VICTORIA: The Orange County–based writer of a self-titled blog played Division II volleyball at Cal Poly Pomona, but this is one tomboy who isn’t afraid to go girly. “I love leather jackets and cool trousers,” Anne says. “But I also adore over-the-knee boots and button-up skirts and things like that.”