If the shoe fits, the saying goes, wear it. And if the shoe fits, but also has the most perfect almond toe, is crafted from the world’s meanest python leather, and boasts a 2.4’’ heel? Wear it with everything.
For the September cover of GQ—our first global issue!—we put the Weeknd in the stylish hands of George Cortina, who dressed Abel in a Tom Ford suede trucker jacket, an inky Hermes trench, huge fur teddy coats, and several heavy-hitter pieces from Hedi Slimane’s Fall 2021 collection for Celine. In other words, the Weekend occupied a sort of stylish imaginary world between that of enigmatic lone wolf Phillip Marlowe and the swaggering Melvin Van Peebles in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.
And just one shoe appears with all the looks: the Celine Jacno. The high-heeled boot is a Slimane signature—it’s appeared in his collections at Dior Homme, Saint Laurent, and Celine—but the Jacno is perhaps his most perfect specimen yet. It’s a lot of Jimi Hendrix; a little early 1960s Beatles, who adored a Cuban heel; and extremely the speed of the Artist Formerly Known as Prince. These shoes look perfect with skinny jeans, giant jeans, a suit, bellbottoms, double-breasted Louis Vuitton pinstripes, and a $26 pair of Wranglers. Erotic, perverse, wearable—these are true Slimane grails.
The python is not available online—you can contact your local Celine outpost to track it down—but the calfskin Jacno is, in shiny calfskin as a pull-on or a zip-up. Isn’t it a relief to know the most bad-ass shoes on the market will go with everything you own?
