Zendaya makes Maison Margiela Tabis feel wearable again

Zendaya made Maison Margiela’s split-toe Tabi look almost ordinary in Tribeca, where she was spotted on July 1 during The Odyssey press run. Worn with a simple tank and jeans, the burgundy, wine-red flat landed less like a fashion dare and more like a polished off-duty shoe.

That is the trick with the Tabi: it becomes far easier to love when the styling is stripped back. Maison Margiela says the shoe first debuted in 1988 and draws from traditional 15th-century Japanese tabi socks, while Martin Margiela’s first runway presentation turned the silhouette into a manifesto with heeled versions, red-painted soles and split-toe footprints across the runway. Even now, the design still carries that charge. It remains one of fashion’s most divisive shoes, admired as a Margiela signature and mocked just as easily for its hoof-like split.

Zendaya’s version worked because nothing around it competed for attention. The jeans were relaxed, the tank stayed clean, and the wine-red shade kept the shoe in classic territory rather than costume territory. W Magazine described the look as a cropped white tank and wide-legged jeans paired with wine-red velvet Margiela flats, and that combination explains the appeal: the silhouette stays strange, but the outfit reads familiar. The result is a split-toe shoe that behaves almost like a loafer or ballerina flat, which is exactly why it suddenly feels wearable again.

Maison Margiela has also made sure there are plenty of ways to buy into the idea. The women’s Tabi range now stretches from ballerinas, loafers and mules to pumps, Mary Janes, sandals and boots, with listed prices on the brand’s site running from about $1,050 to $4,590. That breadth turns the Tabi from one cult object into a full category, and Zendaya has been leaning into it repeatedly with help from Law Roach, whose styling has helped make the shoe part of her off-duty vocabulary.

The Tabi’s grip on fashion is not just aesthetic. In 2026, Maison Margiela won invalidations over seven rival split-toe shoe designs at the European Union Intellectual Property Office, a reminder that the shape is now as protected as it is recognizable. Zendaya’s street-style moment made the point visually: the original still shocks, but in the right color and with the right restraint, it can pass for the most compelling flat in the room.