I don’t know whether it’s the effect of Isabel Marant, Rag + Bone, Acne or seemingly countless other taste-making cooler-than-thou brands who have debuted low-slung, low-heeled booties, but whoever started it, I want to thank them. Shoes like the Acne Pistol Booties and Rag + Bone Newbury Booties have given cool girls all over a comfortable, versatile, relatively low-key alternative to boring flats, and now the traditional shoe powerhouses are starting to catch on.

The Giuseppe Zanotti Metallic Exotic-Effect Booties wouldn’t exist without the popularity of the previously mentioned designs, and I’m glad it does. Zanotti has taken this idea of a new staple shoe and given it his signature glam touch, and the results would look totally amazing (or #totesamaze, if you will) at the bottom of a pair of black skinnies. That’s not a spring outfit, but who cares? It’s a great one.

If the past couple of years have been great for anything, it’s been a proliferation in the types of comfortable footwear for women that are also considered fashionable. Motorcycle boots, Chelsea boots, loafers, smoking flats, oxfords, lace-ups of many varieties. Where we once had only one option – ballet flats – we now have a litany of stylish, functional choices. This type of booties are another entry on that list, and the gold-glazed combination of embossed stingray and python is the kind of treatment you’d normally expect to be reserved for a precarious stiletto. That it can be had in a designer shoe that won’t mangle your feet feels like one small step for woman, one large step for womankind. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $850.