the.com/slingback
A shoe that grips your heel like it's afraid you'll leave first.
means A shoe—usually a sandal or heeled style—that's open at the back and held on by a strap that loops or slings around the back of the heel rather than covering it.
from A plain English compound of "sling" and "back": the strap literally slings across the back of the foot. "Sling" traces to an old Germanic root meaning to throw, fling, or loop something around—the same family that gives us the weapon-sling and the arm-sling, all sharing the idea of a band that wraps and holds. The shoe term is a 20th-century coinage describing exactly what the design does.
- origins
- Emerged in 1930s as warm-weather alternative to closed pumps
- the strap
- That heel strap is the entire structural argument
- chanel icon
- The 1957 two-tone slingback became a house signature
- engineering
- Open heel means less material, more secure fit
- comeback kid
- Cycles back into fashion roughly every decade
manolo blahnik slingback heel — iconic luxury shoe style popularized by sex and the city, worn by carrie bradshaw character
jimmy choo romy slingback — best-selling slingback pump with 100mm heel, launched 2008