These Tiger Appliqué Boots at Alexandre Vauthier Are Seriously Wild

You can always trust Alexandre Vauthier to inject some high-octane fizz into Paris Haute Couture Week. This is after-dark dressing at its best, and one of the few shows where you can absolutely guarantee that there won’t be a flat in sight. Let alone a sneaker.

Vauthier works with Amina Muaddi, the most glamorous shoe designer in the business, and FN caught up with her after the show today for a detailed debrief on the collection’s footwear. “Alex is a master of the boot,” she told us. “He has amazing ideas that we put in practice, and this season, he wanted a soft thigh-high boot that you can style high or low, pulling it up or down almost like a pant.”

These came with contrast leather toecaps just like a pump and in myriad iterations, from silk to python to an appliqué of tiny pailettes in a tiger stripe motif so intricate that from a distance it looked exactly like a print. These also matched one of the wildest dresses in the collection.

Elsewhere were sandals bedazzled with diamond baguettes like a tennis bracelet or dripping with Swarovski crystal pompoms dangling from gold chains.

There was also a new heel silhouette for fall — which, although it looked like a stiletto in profile, was actually shaped like a razor. “Alex always wants to do stilettos,” said Muaddi, “but I found something different he was happy with — still feminine but stronger and more fierce.”

See more styles on the runway at Alexandre Vauthier’s fall ’18 Haute Couture Week show.