When Did Tabi Shoes Become Every Day Shoes?
Having lived through my fair share of Berlin summers, I can confidently say that nothing is as ubiquitous here as the Birkenstock Boston. It has been the go-to summer shoe of Germans for what seems like generations; each year, troves of Boston-clad denizens can be seen “guten tag”-ing their way through the city streets, biking to a lake or loafing in a park in their favorite clogs.
All due respect to the Boston, but that has become the shoe of the normie, and even Maison Margiela’s newly tabified take on it can’t shake that status. In fact, this shoe embraces it. Maison Margiela’s Tabi Daily Mule lifts the open-back, wide strap, and suede soft leather of a Boston but retains the maison’s signature split-toe that will make you look and feel like a background camel in Lawrence of Arabia.
If anything, the Tabi Daily Mule doesn’t just reaffirm the Birkenstock mule’s basic bona fides; it confirms that the style itself has long since lost its weirdo luster, following the recent rise of split-toe sneakers — not to mention Margiela’s own Tabi ballerina flats, slingbacks, pumps, Mary Janes, loafers, and lace-ups, to name just a few of its offerings.
We’ve come a long way since Martin Margiela designed his take on the traditional Japanese work shoe for his 1989 debut collection, shocking fashion with its cloven silhouette. I vividly remember my first run-in with Margiela’s iconic boot: a sharply dressed creative director sauntered towards me, a lowly intern from a small Nevadan town, as I gawked at her feet. It was 2015, and this single shoe felt like the pinnacle of avant-garde fashion.
Now, though, this new Tabi Daily Mule doesn’t even make me gawk. It just feels like a slightly hoofier $1,290 option (or the polished-leather $1,850 version) for an otherwise normal-looking summer shoe.
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