When I first visited Paris in the ‘90s, you’d be as likely to see a Parisienne dressed as Uncle Sam as wearing a pair of sneakers. Loafers, sandals and Audrey Hepburn-appropriate ballet flats only were permissible, lest you appear to be a tourist or some sort of dogged professional. Wearing sneakers, someone was “sure that locals were looking at them in a pitying kind of manner, thinking, ‘those poor Anglo-Saxons and their rat-wheel ways,” as Katrina Lawrence writes in Paris for Dreamers. Today however, ooh la la, the French have joined the global fashion herd, practically marching in tune to La Marseillaise as they mill about from the Tuileries to Paris Fashion Week in athletic footwear. However, the shoes are not just any old running shoe, they’re chosen and paired with clothes in really cool ways, per everything in their French capsule wardrobe. Here’s what I’m seeing on fashionable French feet these days, sporting edition.
Welp! In Paris, Women Have Finally Embraced Sneakers
Including 12 Shoppable Options to Get the Look
PureWow editors select every item that appears on this page, and some items may be gifted to us. Additionally, PureWow may earn compensation through affiliate links within the story. All prices are accurate upon date of publish. You can learn more about the affiliate process here.
1. Brown Suede
A little bit fall-friendly leisure wear, a little bit sporty (these have waffle soles and traditional sport-shoe laces), sneakers in varying shades of brown, tan and caramel are peeking out from wide-leg trousers.
Shop the Look
2. Classic White Leather Tennis Shoe, Streamlined
Restrained and as elegant as a sports shoe could possibly be, the white leather tennis shoe is a popular accompaniment to skirts and dresses. (The American practice of swanning around in city shorts is still a bit declasse for French women, however.) With genuine and faux leather uppers and flat soles appropriate for playing a racquet sport without tearing up a clay surface, these let Parisienne feel sporty even if the most exercise they’re going to get is strolling Rick Owens fashion exhibition at the Palais Galliera.
Shop the Look
3. Ornamented Sneakers
Since Miu Miu innovated adding multiple color laces on its trainers in recent seasons, the whole trend of artisanal-looking and custom-crafted shoes has taken off. From shoes with all-over wild patchwork fabric like Japanese brand Flower Mountain to traditional shoes jazzed up with bright paracord or satin laces, the French are using sneakers as a canvas for individual expression.
Shop the Look
