There’s just something about a metal heel, man.

I don’t know if it’s the undeniable, aggressive modernity or the resemblance to some sort of deadly weapon or tool of torture or just the textural contrast that it adds to whatever material makes up the rest of the shoe, but metal heels are a design trick I can’t resist (not that I ever try, because I don’t). It doesn’t even so much matter to me whether the heels in question are slender or chunky, so long as they’re metal, but the spindly, vertiginous spikes underneath the Christian Louboutin Lipsinka Python Pumps might be the pinnacle of the genre.

This is the kind of shoe that I feel as though I don’t need to review so much as present; the divergent textures of the python and metal and the classic shape of the upper against the fierce heel are appealing in a way that doesn’t take much explanation. And still, because of the natural look of the python, this shoe manages to be fairly neutral, and dare I say wearable for those among us who have done their ankle exercises more slavishly than yours truly? Relative to other, more platform-y Louboutins, of course. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $1295.