Paris Hilton brought a slice of fashion history to Paris Fashion Week on Saturday, stepping out in a pair of Vivienne Westwood platforms modeled after the house’s famed 1993 Super-Elevated designs.
The shoes, built on a thick block platform with a sharply arched sole, featured the corseted lacing and sculptural height that once made Westwood’s Gillies a runway legend. Hilton’s version combined suede and leather in cream and ice-gray tones, grounding her voluminous green gown in a distinctly archival silhouette. The combination of wrapped platform, cutout panels and crisscross ties recalled the extreme elevation that became one of Westwood’s defining provocations.
Paris Hilton attends the Vivienne Westwood Fashion Show in platform heels with corset lace details during Paris Fashion Week on Saturday.
Getty Images
Her green-and-lavender gown, trimmed in feathers and built on a panniered skirt, carried the same sense of drama. White gloves, cat-eye frames and a diamond collar tied it back to Westwood’s signature mix of couture polish and punk edge.
Hilton, who has long gravitated toward maximalist statements, has revisited Westwood’s aesthetic throughout her career — from corseted silhouettes at red-carpet appearances to platform-heavy performance looks. Her return to the brand in Paris follows a summer defined by similarly bold footwear moments, including rhinestone Stuart Weitzman thigh-highs at WeHo Pride and Gianvito Rossi’s fitted suede boots at Tribeca.
A closer look at Paris Hilton’s Vivienne Westwood’s corset-style platforms.
Getty Images
The reference point was unmistakable. In 1993, Naomi Campbell’s memorable fall in Westwood’s runway show turned the Super-Elevated Gillies into a symbol of fashion fearlessness. Campbell later joked that the nine-inch heels “tested her balance and her pride,” while Westwood famously called the stumble “beautiful — like a gazelle.” The moment helped cement the British designer’s reputation for defying convention and redefining femininity through risk.
Naomi Campbell trip on the runway at the Vivienne Westwood fall 1993 runway show.
Guy Marineau/Conde Nast via Getty Images
For Hilton, whose public persona has always blended self-parody and glamour, the nod feels intentional — a bridge between two eras of women who mastered spectacle on their own terms. Where Campbell’s moment captured the danger of fashion, Hilton’s reimagining celebrates its endurance — the idea that style history can be playful, self-aware and towering in every sense.