The 10 Best Espadrilles for Spring and Summer 2023

Your chunky-phobia, cured.

marie claire editor wanyi jiang wearing espadrilles
(Image credit: Wanyi Jiang)

Welcome to The Essentials, our weekly series highlighting a must-have classic, key to building a timeless, pulled-together closet.

Espadrilles are the ultimate summer shoe. Worn flat or with a heel, these woven sandals are all about sophisticated ease. For proof, just look to classic Hollywood films—think Lauren Bacall in Key Largo and Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief—that gave espadrilles the gold stamp of approval. These past few seasons, we've seen the espadrille trend expand, but it was Salvatore Ferragamo who originally put them on the map. In the '30s and '40s, the Italian shoe designer made use of materials such as raffia and cork, according to the MoMA's Items: Is Fashion Modern?Then, in the '70s, Yves Saint Laurent released his own take on the shoe, turning the traditional flat into a wedge—and a modern trend was born. Today, designers send this woven shoe down the runway in many iterations. Shop our favorites for 2023, below.

Sara Holzman
Style Director

Sara Holzman is the Style Director for Marie Claire, where she's worked alongside the publication for eight years in various roles, ensuring the brand's fashion content continues to inform, inspire, and shape the conversation about fashion's ever-evolving landscape. With a degree from the Missouri School of Journalism, Sara is responsible for overseeing a diverse fashion content mix, from emerging and legacy designer profiles to reported features on the influence of social media on style and seasonal and micro trends across the world's fashion epicenters in New York, Milan, and Paris. Before joining Marie Claire, Sara held fashion roles at Conde Nast's Lucky Magazine and Self Magazine and was a style and travel contributor to Equinox's Furthermore website. Over her decade of experience in the fashion industry, Sara has helped guide each brand's style point of view, working alongside veteran photographers and stylists to bring editorial and celebrity photo shoots to fruition from start to finish. Sara currently lives in New York City. When she's not penning about fashion or travel, she’s at the farmer’s market, on a run, working to perfect her roasted chicken recipe, or spending time with her husband, dog, and cat. Follow her along at @sarajonewyork