5 Footwear Picks That Are Built For This Summer

Summer footwear lives or dies on one test that is universal: can you actually walk in it for six hours straight or not. Be it heat or humidity, the season puts a shoe through more obstacles in a single day than most footwear see all year.

This year, summer footwear is covering more ground than usual. Luxury maisons are rethinking what a shoe is for, who designs it, and what it says about the brand making it. Below is a list of five footwear picks that spans a raffia mule that looks more expensive than it needs to, a mule slide referencing the Roman harvest festival, and the first significant shoe from Jonathan Anderson’s Dior era.

LightSpray Cloudmonster From Loewe x On Running

Released in May, the Cloudtilt Hi is the most wearable piece from Loewe and On's second collaboration. It's a high-top built on a knitted sock base with structured synthetic overlay panels that extend into a sculptural raised collar—sitting somewhere between a technical trainer and a fashion boot. On's CloudTec cushioning sits underfoot with a Speedboard for forward momentum, which means it works as well on a long city day as it does styled with wide-leg trousers. It comes in two colourways: Black/Oatmeal/Olive and Sand/Oatmeal/Plum, in unisex sizing with a dedicated women's run from US 5 to US 11 on on.com and loewe.com. The headline piece from the collection—the LightSpray Cloudmonster, whose seamless upper is constructed by spraying filament onto a mould in approximately three minutes—is the one generating the most conversation, but it's in-store only at select flagships. The Cloudtilt Hi is the one you can actually order.

Price: USD 650 (approx. Rs. 54,340).

Raffia Stretch Flat Mules By Bottega Veneta

Bottega Veneta's Stretch silhouette—the wide twisted-vamp band that first broke through in intrecciato leather—arrives in woven raffia for SS26, in the colourway Macadamia. The construction is exactly what the Stretch has always been: square toe, slip-on, flat leather sole with rubber injection for grip, logo embossed on the tonal leather footbed. Made in Italy. The translation into raffia is what makes it summer-specific without making it feel disposable—the texture reads more interesting than plain leather in warm light, and the flat sole makes it a genuine all-day proposition. For those who want the same silhouette with height, the Raffia Stretch Heeled Mules in Lavender carry a 90mm stiletto heel and retail separately.

Price: USD 1,020 (approx. Rs. 85,200).

Muse Pump, SS26 By Christian Dior 

When Jonathan Anderson presented his debut womenswear collection at Les Tuileries on October, 2025—the first person to oversee all lines at Dior since Christian Dior himself—the footwear was co-designed with Nina Christen, who had previously created some of the most noted shoes from the Loewe era. The Muse pump is where that continuity is most concentrated. Anderson went back to Roger Vivier's work at Dior in the 1950s and '60s, pulled the essential geometry forward, and updated it with an elongated square toe and a two-tone calfskin upper printed with a crocodile motif. A small bow sits on the vamp—the detail running through the entire SS26 accessories line, from shoes to bags.

Available in stores from January 2, the price of the Muse pump is available on request in-store.

Oran Sandal From Summer 2026 Colourways By Hermès

Pierre Hardy designed the Oran for Hermès in 1997—a flat calfskin slide with an H-shaped cutout strap—and the construction has not changed since. What changes each summer is the colourway rotation, and for 2026, Hermès is running 49 shades across the women's lineup, including new additions in blue, pink, and green not available last season. Made in Italy, the sole is flat leather that softens and moulds to the foot over several wears. It fits true to size for standard width; the house recommends a half-size up for wider feet.

Price: USD 900 (approx. Rs. 75,240). Although, exotic leather editions are available at considerably higher price points.

VLogo Signature Cherryfic Slide Sandal 20mm, Valentino Garavani

The Cherryfic motif—a cherry print woven into synthetic raffia jacquard—is running across Alessandro Michele's first full summer at Valentino, and this flat slide is where it lands most cleanly. The upper is synthetic raffia jacquard with the Cherryfic print, with leather detailing and a VLogo Signature accessory in antique brass-effect finish. The heel sits at 20mm (0.8 inches), making it effectively a flat—summer-appropriate and genuinely all-day wearable. Made in Italy, available in Natural/Red. The shoe does the talking; the rest of the outfit doesn't have to.

Price: USD 549 (approx. Rs. 45,870) on valentino.com.