Sorry, peep-toes—Kaia Gerber found fall's next It heel

Kaia Gerber just swapped summer peep-toe vibes for closed-toe backless heels, pairing a glossy satin little black dress with Herbert Levine pointy mules on July 27 as she kicked off press for Ryan Murphy's The Shards. The look signals why fashion watchers already tip backless heels as fall's sleek successor to the peep-toe pump.

Key Takeaways

• Kaia Gerber wore a sleeveless satin little black dress with black suede Herbert Levine backless mules on July 27 while promoting Ryan Murphy's The Shards, due on Hulu August 5.
• The closed-toe stilettos read like a cooler-weather answer to summer's peep-toe pump craze, already worn by stars such as Katie Holmes and Alexa Chung.
• Spring/Summer 2026 runways from Dior, Loewe, and Stella McCartney also pushed backless heels, priming the silhouette for autumn.
• Days earlier, Gerber kept the '90s LBD mood in ballet flats—a Cindy Crawford-coded throwback that makes the heel switch feel intentional.

For readers who track celebrity style as nostalgia then and now, Gerber's July turn is less a random shoe flex and more a season pivot in plain sight.

What did Kaia Gerber wear with her little black dress?

According to Marie Claire, Gerber started her The Shards press tour bright and early on Monday, July 27, in a sleeveless little black dress styled by Emma Jade Morrison.

The dress ran glossy satin from a boatneck neckline to a knee-length hem—far from the razor-sharp blazers and monochrome jeans associated with her early-'80s L.A. thriller character. Marie Claire noted she looked like the spitting image of her mother, Cindy Crawford, in the 1990s.

The surprise was not the LBD itself. It was that Gerber skipped the block-heel ballet flats she usually pairs with black dresses off-duty in Los Angeles. This time, the closed-toe story stayed intact, but the footwear jumped to sky-high, pointy backless mules in black suede from Herbert Levine.

Marie Claire framed the silhouette as a closed-toe take on the peep-toe pumps trend: same sleek stiletto energy, minus the open tip that shows off a pedicure.

Why do backless heels matter for fall fashion right now?

Peep-toe pumps have been summer's It shoe, with Marie Claire citing Katie Holmes, Alexa Chung, and Monica Barbaro among the celebrities who keep styling them as a polished flip-flop alternative. Gerber's July 27 look flips the calendar early.

Once thong sandals head back into storage, Marie Claire argued, celebrities could crown backless closed-toe heels their sleek autumnal successor. Gerber's anti-summer stance—covered toes, open backs, serious height—lands exactly in that handoff zone.

Designers already telegraphed the shift on Spring/Summer 2026 runways. Dior showed backless pairs with oversized 3-D floral appliqués. Loewe cut the heels into lemon-yellow, loafer-adjacent pumps. Stella McCartney sent strawberry-red slides with V-shaped vamps, some of the season's highest backless stilettos.

In other words, Gerber did not invent the mule moment; she gave it a celebrity LBD case study right as fashion starts thinking about cooler nights and closed toes.

How does this compare with Kaia Gerber's recent '90s LBD looks?

Only a week earlier, Gerber was deep in another '90s throwback—same little-black-dress instinct, totally different shoe chapter. After Spain won the 2026 World Cup Final, she continued the tournament's no-jersey VIP vibe at Hailey and Justin Bieber's after-party in New York.

Marie Claire reported that Gerber arrived looking like a '90s supermodel in a spaghetti-strap slip dress with a minimalist rectangular sheer strip along a square neckline, a leather shoulder bag, and black ballet flats. AOL's coverage of the July 19 outing filled in more product detail: a micro minidress on thin spaghetti straps with a sheer mesh panel at the bust and satin trim at the hem, worn en route to Justin Bieber's Skylark party at The Twenty Two after the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final.

Those flats were the Repetto Kaia ballet flats by Kaia Gerber—soft suede styles inspired by Repetto's Cendrillon flat, with a 2 cm heel and bow ties at the vamp, priced at $440. She tucked a black grainy-leather Gucci Jackie 1961 medium shoulder bag from the house's Spring/Summer 2026 collection under her arm, finishing with a delicate gold pendant, dark sunglasses, tousled middle-part waves, and a glossy pink lip.

Marie Claire connected that World Cup-night LBD to Cindy Crawford's '90s playbook of flirty hemlines and risqué straps, even nodding to a semi-sheer Todd Oldham runway slip Crawford modeled in 1997. Gerber has borrowed from that archive before, including Crawford's Hervé Léger bandage dress from the 1993 Oscars for the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

Set against that ballet-flat chapter, the Herbert Levine backless mules feel like Gerber keeping the nostalgia wardrobe and upgrading the weather forecast. Same LBD lineage, new heel thesis for fall.

What should style watchers take from Kaia Gerber's shoe switch?

The headline is not that Gerber abandoned closed toes. She doubled down on them. Marie Claire stressed that when she is off the clock in L.A., she primarily pairs LBDs with the Repetto block-heel ballet flats she co-designed. The press-tour mule moment stayed loyal to that closed-toe preference while raising the stakes for evening and autumn dressing.

For anyone shopping the pivot, the takeaway is simple: keep the little black dress, drop the summer peep, and look for a backless closed-toe heel that still feels slip-on easy. Gerber's Herbert Levine mules are the proof of concept; the SS26 runways from Dior, Loewe, and Stella McCartney suggest the silhouette has industry backing beyond one photo call.

Kaia Gerber did not need a jersey to win the World Cup weekend style conversation, and she did not need peep-toes to launch The Shards press cycle. She needed a satin LBD, a Cindy-coded attitude, and—this time—a backless heel that already looks like fall.