Shoe Designers at Paris Fashion Week Can’t Stop Talking About Rachel Green

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While “Sex and the City” has long been an inspiration for shoe designers, “Friends” is owning the fashion conversation this season.

Young female creatives at Paris Fashion Week — including the By Far trio and Nodaleto co-founder and creative director Julia Toledano — are channeling some serious late ’90s and early 2000s nostalgia into their spring ’20 collections.

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“The first thing I thought about was Rachel Green,” said Toledano, of Jennifer Aniston’s famed sitcom character, who catapulted to fame when the designer was still very young. “I’m 26, but my sister is 36, so I was kind of growing up with her,” she recalled. (Naturally, Toledano was wearing a black pump she named the Geller in honor of Ross.)

In a season where the square toe trend rules, Rachel’s fashion sensibility is on trend. The character, who is also the star of a special Ralph Lauren capsule, worked in the industry and wore square-toe boots.

“Sex and the City” — and its four female stars — is also a big fashion story for Toledano. She named a crystal drip mule in the new collection after “Mr. Big,” choosing his-once secret last name, Preston, for the style. “I can see Carrie or one of the Sex and the City girls wearing this to a new restaurant uptown,” Toledano said. Meanwhile, a lavender platform mule is called Jones, “because only Samantha could handle it,” Toledano said.

At By Far — which has quickly gained a strong following from celebrities and retailers alike, thanks it strong point of view and accessible prices — the late ’90s are constantly top of mind.

“Friends,” “Sex and the City,” Princess Diana, the Macarena — they are all endless sources of inspiration for us,” said Sabina Gyosheva, who started the brand with twin sister Valentina Bezuhanova and the siblings’ best friend Denitsa Bumbarova. “Growing up in Bulgaria, we were obsessed.” (There’s even a beaded shoe for spring that is fashioned in the spirit of the ubiquitous wedding dance.)

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