In July it will be exactly 20 years since I saw my first pair of Loro Piana Open Walk shoes. It was at a regatta near Moscow on 1 July 2006, on the feet of a man dressed entirely in varying shades of sand, a palette that spoke eloquently of Loro Piana’s extravagant understatement. The shoes looked like laceless desert boots. I thought I was observing just another oligarch; only later did I realise I had seen an early adopter of a shoe that would tip the world’s taste towards what we now call “quiet luxury”.
Loro Piana leather Open Walk shoes, from £870 © Courtesy of Loro Piana
Today, the shoe is so famous it hardly needs description: a white rubber sole, a suede upper, held on the foot by elastic concealed beneath the tongue. You will see Open Walks (from £890) on the feet of David Beckham and Ryan Reynolds. Meanwhile, the Summer Walk, a lower-profile loafer version (from £890), is the billionaire’s island-hopping shoe of choice: see Jeff Bezos in Ibiza and Succession’s Kendall Roy. It has also inspired shoe brands big and small to make versions of their own.
From left: David Beckham, Thierry Henry, the Duke of Sussex, Kit Harington and Jeff Bezos wear Loro Piana © Pierre Suu/GC Images. PA Images/Alamy. Getty Images. MEGA/GC Images
