Rita Ora doesn’t believe in a demarcation between on- and offstage life, at least when it comes to her theatrical fashion sense. So after Giuseppe Zanotti designed custom shoes for the 28-year-old’s last UK tour, Ora embarked on a collaboration with the designer, adapting her arena style for everyday wear. The capsule, which launched in January, includes stiletto heels, over-the-knee boots, and slides, all with gold Cuban-link accents inspired by the “Let You Love Me” singer’s maximalist style. (“I love wearing loads of jewelry at inappropriate places, like the beach,” she says.)
Ora, who’s currently gearing up for a tour after releasing her album Phoenix in November, had one key mandate: Everything had to be comfortable. Ora has a sneaker collection over 500 pairs strong and often judges shoes based on her ability to dance and run in them. “Eventually,” she says, “I would love to do a pair of sneakers with [Zanotti].” The designer is open to the idea: “When you work with somebody, you write a chapter. This was chapter one.We finished a chapter, but not the book.”
It wouldn’t be Ora’s first foray into the athletic market. Back in 2014, she partnered with Adidas Originals on athleisure and sneakers. “There really weren’t any sports collabs going on back then,” she says. “Now you have Rihanna for Puma and Kendall [Jenner] and Hailey [Baldwin] for Adidas Originals. I’m already thinking about the next step of the collaboration system.” And what might that be? “I can’t tell you,” she whispers cheekily, “because then everyone is going to start doing that.”
This article originally appeared in the February 2019 issue of ELLE.
