Nothing new under the sun?
It seems fitting in a fashion page about boots that we also have a quick look into one of fashion’s most iconic footwear items - the Martin Margiela’s Tabi boot.
Otago Polytechnic year one fashion student Oliver Murphy’s essay compared the Tabi boots with their historical inspiration, the Japanese jika-tabi.
Titled Margiela’s Tabi: Reinterpretation, Transformation, or Cultural Appropriation? Murphy asked in the essay "what are those freaky looking boots with a split toe that people argue about online?".
Murphy was referring to the original fashion interpretation of the Japanese staple, the Margiela tabi boot which was first seen as a fashion item in Margiela’s debut show in 1988.
RMIT fashion design lecturer Alexandra Sherlock said in an interview with the ABC "tabis were popular because they signalled the owner understood high fashion and could afford them".
In the 2019 movie Martin Margiela: In his own words, Margiela stated he wanted to "create a shoe as never seen before", and that he drew on footwear he had observed when visiting Japan, the cotton jika-tabi.
The reactions to the Margiela tabi are divided, from repulsion (these look like animal hooves) to adoration (these are sexy). Since the tabi boots were created Margiela has designed countless versions, including flat boots, ballet flats, court shoes, wedge heels and even sneakers.
How much can a designer use as inspiration before the design becomes copying or cultural appropriation?
I am unsure where the line is, and Murphy also wonders about the slippage into copying when he asks "is what he [Margiela] did a reinterpretation, a tribute or does it slide into culture appropriation?".
Murphy unpacked the history of the tabi, including their use as socks to be worn with sandals, the Japanese version dating back to at least the 15th century, and fabrications such as cotton or silk in various colours depending on the social hierarchies.
As Murphy says "Tabi weren’t just slippers, they were symbolic clothing embedded in class, in ceremony".
Like all good designs, the socks evolved with the needs of the wearers and became transformed from a jika-tabi to rubber soled slit-toed footwear worn by labourers, carpenters, farmers and construction workers.
Authors Geczy & Karaminas said in 2020 that the Margiela tabi boot created a new meaning, and many wearers of the tabi boot did not necessarily associate these boots with their Japanese roots.
In 2024 Akira Namidome from Marugo, a Japanese tabi manufacturing company established in 1919, said in an ABC interview the popularity of tabis in the West was also helping keep the Japanese tradition alive.
Many brands borrow from cultural and historical designs in their day-to-day designing, completely decontextualising the original.
Where does the line between inspiration and appropriation lie?
Margiela acknowledged his source inspiration and in doing so, does this version slip into ‘‘borderless fashion practice’’, an accepted design approach when undertaken respectfully as noted by fashion researcher Vanessa Geary. Perhaps the issue could be addressed in a similar way to some art and design works which are said to be inspired by a known initiator. That is, they could be known "in the style of" something, in this case in the style of the jika-tabi.
Contemporary versions of the tabi abound. The 1996 Nike Air Rift, which is now making a comeback, and features a split toe like the Margiela Tabi. Nike states these shoes are "inspired by barefoot long-distance runners of Kenya". There is also the split-toed wetsuit booties that many of our St Clair surfers don to cope with our polar winters.
Of all the different versions of tabis for sale, for the dedicated fashionista the Margiela boots remain the most important, the one people lust after.
Murphy’s essay concludes saying "Margiela’s Tabi boots are less an act of theft than an act of radical transformation - but their creation rests on conditions that the designer (and wearers) should remain conscious of".
Winter 2026 boots
Barton takes a look at her favourites among the boots available in Otago this season. "I am grateful to Ōtepoti Dunedin’s cool climes that make boot wearing comfortable all year round’’.
We love the fabulous Pablo - Knee high boots are huge this season and the Pablo has a hint of a Moto element, but the harness is removable so if you prefer a simpler look for different outfit vibes it is possible, all with one boot!
(47 Frocks, Wānaka)
(Chapman Store, Dunedin)
(Frames, Dunedin)
(Hyde Boutique, Oamaru)
(Inside Out Clothing, Dunedin)
(Pieces: Fashion, Design and Art, Port Chalmers)
(Repertoire, Dunedin)
(The Shelter by Taylor, Dunedin)
