Rita Ora stepped out in SoHo on Wednesday wearing a breezy summer look anchored by Sportmax’s Optical White Transparent Wedge Pumps, a design that merges functionality with one of the season’s dominant footwear trends: clear, sculptural heels.
Ora’s heels — a standout from Sportmax’s spring 2025 ready-to-wear collection — feature a sharply tapered silhouette with a sheer textile upper and coordinating leather trim. A sculptural, 9-cm plexiglass wedge gives the style its clear edge. The Italian-made pumps also include a padded insole with an embossed motif and a smooth leather sole.
Rita Ora is seen walking in SoHo on July 9 in New York City.
Raymond Hall/GC Images
She paired the heels with a gathered halter minidress in optic white satin. The neckline cinches and releases into an A-line silhouette, giving her look fluid movement while allowing the shoes to stay fully visible. Oversize gold bangles, stacked rings and slim cat-eye sunglasses rounded out the ensemble.
A closer look at Rita Ora’s clear Sportsmax wedges.
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The footwear debuted on a pristine white runway at Sportmax’s spring 2025 show, held in Milan’s Pinacoteca di Brera courtyard. In his review for WWD, Martino Carrera described the collection as one that “charmed with its precision, crafty details and inherent duality of sharp and softer edges.” That duality is visible in the shoes’ sheer upper and geometric wedge. Carrera also highlighted the brand’s shift toward “graphic precision,” citing razor-sharp tunics and sculptural tailoring, a context that makes Ora’s footwear choice feel all the more deliberate.
A look at the Sportsmax Transparent Wedge Pumps in Optical White on the runway in Milan in September 2024.
Courtesy of Filippo Fior/Gorunwa
The clear shoe trend continues to gain momentum this season. John Cena’s wife Shay Shariatzadeh recently wore Alaïa’s Le Cœur Mules at the London premiere of “Heads of State,” with see-through panels and a sculpted heart detail. Khloé Kardashian kicked off Jeff Bezos’ and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding festivities in Venice with transparent Gianvito Rossi mules. And just a day prior to Ora’s clear wedge moment, Angela Bassett attended Stéphane Rolland’s fall 2025 couture show in translucent platform sandals.
Nike is even reintroducing transparency into sneakers. Its new see-through Air Force 1 Lows feature icy panels and blinged-out dubraes, a nod to early-2000s designs.