Mary Janes grow up, with celebrity and runway twists

Simone Ashley stepped out in slingback Mary Janes at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on May 13, and Jennifer Lawrence has been wearing Mary Jane sneakers. The result is a shoe that reads polished, not precocious. “We’re not in middle school anymore,” Marie Claire wrote on its spring/summer 2026 celebrity-style page.

The Mary Jane is no longer a costume piece

The classic Mary Jane is still easy to define: a closed, low-cut shoe with one or more straps across the instep. That silhouette has always carried a little tension, which is part of why it keeps coming back. It can suggest innocence, but it can also look stubbornly modern when the materials and proportions are right.

That contradiction is built into the shoe’s history. In the early 1900s, the Brown Shoe Company in Missouri helped popularize Mary Janes by marketing them for children, and the style took its name from the Mary Jane cartoon character. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s shoe research treats footwear as a record of changes in aesthetic taste, design, and manufacturing techniques.

Celebrity styling is pushing the shoe out of the nursery

Jennifer Lawrence and Simone Ashley are useful proof points because neither is wearing the shoe as a retro quote. Lawrence flattens the old school-uniform association by giving the strap a sportier base, while Ashley showed how a familiar strap can look sharp when it meets evening dressing. On the red carpet in France, the black slingback version felt especially adult, because the exposed heel and cleaner line removed most of the childhood baggage.

Yahoo Shopping’s trend list spans Mary Jane sneakers, studded pairs, mesh styles, heeled versions, and backless renditions.

The design details that make them look sophisticated

The modern Mary Jane succeeds or fails on proportion. A low, neat strap can look delicate; a chunkier one can skew literal and juvenile. Heel height changes the message immediately, too. Flat versions tend to lean more casual or nostalgic, while heeled Mary Janes, especially when they are slim or slingback, pull the shoe into cocktail territory.

Material does just as much work. Patent leather can still nod to the traditional version, but matte leather, mesh, and studded finishes push the shoe into a more directional register. The same is true of the shape under the strap: a sleeker forefoot, a cleaner vamp, or a backless cut strips away the feeling of a primary-school uniform and gives the silhouette adult tension.

Why fashion has room for this twist now

The current appetite is not just celebrity noise. Lyst identified a clear hunger for Mary Jane sneakers. That makes sense in a season when fashion keeps rewarding pieces that feel legible but not obvious, familiar but not flatly retro.

Valentino, Ulla Johnson, and Boss have all added their own Mary Jane renditions. One label can make it sharp and polished, another can make it softer or more bohemian, and another can push it toward pragmatic daywear.

How to wear the grown-up Mary Jane now

The easiest way to keep the shoe adult is to let the rest of the outfit sharpen it. Tailoring works especially well: straight trousers, cropped suiting, or a clean midi skirt all keep the silhouette disciplined. A black slingback version feels strongest with something streamlined, while Mary Jane sneakers look best when the outfit is intentionally polished enough to make the shoe feel like a choice, not a throwback.

• Choose a sleeker strap if you want the shoe to feel refined.

• Go for slingback or heeled versions when you want the Mary Jane to read evening-ready.

• Use matte leather, mesh, or backless cuts to move away from overt nostalgia.

• Pair them with tailored pieces, not overly sweet ones, if the goal is sophistication.