Alexa Chung’s Spring Shoes Made Her Stove Pipe Jeans Look So Fresh

Swept in with the new year, stovepipe jeans are once again reigning supreme as the fashion person’s denim silhouette of choice. Usurping the stronghold baggy and low-rise styles have held on our wardrobes for the past few seasons, these slim-fitting, higher-rise cuts—with their sharper structure and inherently more polished energy—are completing all of spring’s chicest looks.

With this sudden denim gear change, I’ve been trying to decode the shoe, and outfit, pairings that make this once-forgotten silhouette feel modern again. Luckily, inspiration arrived in droves when I spotted my perennial style icon, Alexa Chung, taking the trending jeans out for a road test this week.

In her typically effortless fashion, Alexa reached for what might just be the chicest shoe pairing I’ve seen for stovepipe jeans so far. Leaning into a distinctly London-girl aesthetic, she slipped into a pair of Maison Margiela Tabi loafers, allowing the split-toe detail to peek out from beneath the hem of her denim.

Perfectly toeing the line between playful and polished, the formal cut of the loafer nods to the London girl’s love of refinement, while the iconic Tabi design keeps the look knowingly unserious. While pointed-toe or square-toe boots will always work with this silhouette, the lightness of a loafer feels far more seasonally apt as we edge towards warmer months. Ballet flats, meanwhile, can stay in storage until spring sunshine is fully in play.