Favorite Women's Black Fendi Sandals of 2017

A sandal, strictly defined, is a light shoe whose sole is held to the foot by straps or an openwork upper. Fendi made what we at Apparel Search like to call a knitted high-heel sandal boot — and this page is devoted to its black colorway, the sharpest version of the design.

SANDALS: black knitted open-toe sandals, code: 8X6513OD9F09G4. Where the red Rockoko warms a room, the black Rockoko edits it: black yarn as the ground, fluorescent pink as the electric accent, and the same sneaker-laced, cut-out, openwork construction underneath.

The Black Rockoko, Described

Start at the heel: it is tall, and its lining stripes two tones together. From there the shoe turns into knitwear — black yarn with a slight elastic give, shot through with fluorescent pink, worked in openwork across the whole upper and finished at the leg with ribbed edging. Cut-outs open the heel and the instep, the toes stay open, and sneaker-style lacing pulls the whole hybrid tight. The collection name is Rockoko Runway; the country of manufacture is Italy.

The house behind it needs little introduction to luxury shoppers: Fendi — Rome's specialist in fur, leather goods, ready-to-wear, footwear, fragrance, eyewear, watches and accessories — has built a century on blurring categories, and a sandal that is also a boot, a sneaker and an evening shoe is that habit distilled into a single object. Full details of the style live at https://www.fendi.com/.

Black With Fluorescent Pink: The Color Argument

Colorway is not a footnote on this shoe; it is the styling. Black knitted yarn behaves like a neutral with texture — it grounds bright clothing and disappears into dark clothing — while the fluorescent-pink yarn flashes at the laces and edging like a signal. The red version's lava-and-black mix reads warm and autumnal; the black version reads urban and nocturnal.

That is why the two colorways earn separate pages in the Fendi study rather than a shared one. A shopper choosing between them is not choosing a size option; she is choosing which outfits in her wardrobe get a new partner, and the honest page treats the black pair's case on its own terms.

Construction Notes: Knit, Cut-Outs, Ribbing

The slightly elasticated yarn is the fit system: the knit stretches over the foot and leg, the laces fine-tune it like a sneaker's, and the ribbed edging on the leg keeps the top of the boot from slouching. Cut-out inserts on the heels and instep break the knit where a foot bends and breathes, so the boot never becomes a sock with a heel glued on.

Openwork all over the shoe completes the logic — ventilation and pattern in the same stitch. Set this beside the Fendi study's other pages: the red Rockoko sandals, where the identical construction wears a warm colorway, and the Waves mule, where Fendi's experiment is mechanical — a folding heel — rather than textile.

What Is the Best Shoe Height?

Height is the obvious question a shoe like this poses, and the general debate is set out in the discussion of the best shoe height. Applied to the Rockoko, the answer is structural before it is numerical: a boot shaft steadies a boot heel, and this knitted sleeve — laced, elasticated, ribbed at the top — does the same steadiness work for a sandal's tall heel.

Judge the black Rockoko, then, as the Fendi study's closing argument: 2017's most categorical shoe — sandal, boot, sneaker and evening heel in one — in its most wearable color. If only one Rockoko goes into a wardrobe, the black and fluorescent pink is the one that goes with everything else in it.

Styling the Black Rockoko

A knitted sandal boot asks its outfit to keep up. The black and pink pair works hardest with cropped trousers and short hemlines that show the ribbed leg — the boot half of the design is the point, and covering it wastes it. Against black tailoring the fluorescent pink becomes the outfit's single color decision; against denim it reads as sport-luxe; against a plain dress it supplies the pattern, texture and height in one piece. Few 2017 shoes could carry an entire look unassisted; this one was knitted to.

Photos