Alaïa Fall/Winter 1991

I felt so mean making this question :(

The Air Jordan 6 “Carmine” first released in 1991 for $125, one of the original colorways of the shoe Michael Jordan wore during the first half of the 1991-92 season. Its alternating red and white upper was the boldest color blocking an Air Jordan had seen. The 6 was also the last Air Jordan to carry visible Nike Air branding on the heel.

The Carmine didn’t return until May 24, 2008, and even then not on its own. It came in a Countdown Pack with a black Air Jordan 17, one of the 2008 packs that paired two models whose numbers added up to 23. The pack cost $310, which kept it mostly in collectors’ hands.

The first standalone retro landed in 2014 for $170. Coincidentally, it released on May 24 again, exactly six years after the Countdown Pack. It had a blue-tinted icy outsole and a Jumpman on the heel instead of the original Nike Air, a swap many fans weren’t happy about.

For the 30th anniversary in February 2021, Jordan Brand released a $200 retro that brought “Nike Air” back to the heel for the first time since 1991. Even that release had problems: Jordan Brand reportedly asked retailers to send back pairs whose white midsoles had turned pink, which was blamed on faulty paint.

The story isn’t over yet. The Carmine is scheduled to return on March 13, 2027, reportedly for $215 and with a shape expected to stay close to the 1991 original. That’s nearly double the original price, 36 years later.

Anna Wintour’s first Vogue cover, in November 1988, showed Israeli model Michaela Bercu in a beaded Christian Lacroix couture jacket with a jeweled cross, worth about $10,000, worn with a pair of faded Guess jeans that cost about $50. It was the first time jeans had ever appeared on the cover of Vogue.

The look happened by accident. The jacket came from a Lacroix suit, but the skirt didn’t fit Bercu, who had just come back from a trip home to Israel. Stylist Carlyne Cerf de Dudzeele put her in jeans instead. The photo wasn’t even meant to be the cover; it was planned for an inside spread.

Peter Lindbergh shot Bercu outdoors, hair blowing and eyes half closed, which broke sharply with the stiff studio portraits that had defined Vogue covers for most of the decade. The cover was such a departure that the printers called the Vogue office to ask whether it had been sent by mistake.

Wintour later said, “I had just looked at that picture and sensed the winds of change.” Mixing couture with everyday denim became the template for high-low dressing, and set the tone for a tenure that lasted 37 years, until Wintour stepped down as editor-in-chief in 2025.

Brother Vellies takes its name from the veldskoen, the rugged desert shoe of South Africa and Namibia, known locally as “vellies.” The name comes from Afrikaans: “veld” means open country and “skoen” means shoe, making it a “field shoe.” A competing spelling, velskoen, uses “vel,” meaning hide, for a “hide shoe.” Dictionary historians still can’t say for sure which came first.

The shoe has deep roots. The Khoikhoi people of the Cape made soft shoes from rawhide, and Dutch settlers adopted the style. Because it could be made without tacks or nails, it was light, tough and easy to repair. It became the standard footwear of farmers and frontiersmen, and the Clarks desert boot is often credited as a descendant: Nathan Clark is said to have based his design on crepe-soled boots he saw in Cairo, which had come from South Africa.

Toronto-born Aurora James founded Brother Vellies in 2013, working out of her home studio in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. She had watched traditional dress giving way to global brands on trips to Africa, and wanted to keep the craft alive by creating jobs for artisans. The brand’s workshops have included partners in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Morocco. In 2015, James was one of three designers to share the top prize of the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, the first three-way tie in its history, with $300,000 each. On stage, she urged the industry to “involve Africa in the conversation instead of just taking inspiration from there.”

The brand still sizes its vellies the traditional way. Women count up four sizes to get their US size, and men count up two, so a Vellie 8 fits a US men’s 10. Its best seller, the Erongo, is handmade in South Africa and sells for $335.