Big-Time Sensuality With Fidan Novruzova

The Moldova-based designer on the surprising sex appeal of the Havva boot (as seen on Bella Hadid and Irina Shayk) and what comes next in her design fantasy.

How is it that the ugliest shoes have landed on the hottest people? Designer Fidan Novruzova is responsible for “the Havva movement”; her signature footwear is fit for a blacksmith but graces the likes of Bella Hadid and Irina Shayk's sensual hooves. The boot has become a hit off the street-style wires, too. “Chances are if you’ve seen me in the last two years, I was most definitely wearing Fidan shoes,” says avid brand fan and fashion plate Nick Tran. “Either the Havvas, the gradient boots, or the mules.”

Now, Novruzova’s clompers aren’t per se—courtesy of the Fidan touch, these are actually shoes. They are easy to spot whether in boot or mule form thanks to their signature silhouette: a girthy rectangle consumes the full length of the foot. The bulky size matters, sure, but there is precision and a thoughtful elegance. “Fidan’s designs teeter between organic, craft, and sleek modernism,” says stylist Kat Typaldos, who dresses her roster of clients, including Caroline Polachek and Maggie Rogers, in Novruzova’s pieces. “The boots in particular reflect this aesthetic—there is something quite familiar, yet naughty about them!”There is a definite perverse flair in the details: The tip of the Havvas flicks upwards, ever so slightly erect, as if begging for someone’s gaze. Another signature touch is how Novruzova translates the graceful aging of quality footwear. In one version, Novzurova creates thick Shar Pei crinkles at the tops of her shoes—a dramatic ode to the creases that form over time on leather shoes. “I wanted to make an exaggerated version of that,” says Novruzova from her Chişinău studio. There is also the designer’s ombre recipe, which she describes as “inspired by the classic patina technique but like on steroids.” The hues are beautiful; noxious yellows of an oil spill or the cloudy hot pinks of the northern lights.

To understand Novruzova’s shoes is to understand her background and design philosophy. The 28-year-old designer, who has Azeri parents but grew up in Moldova’s capital of Chişinău, no doubt sees her fair share of clunky square-toe shoes in the city’s post-Soviet bazaars. “It was more about early post-Soviet times mens shoes, where I exaggerated the shape and the creases, which were inspired by the old ways of wearing clothes and shoes,” she says. “Preconsumerist ways.”Part of Novruzova’s charm can be credited to that quiet upbringing in Chişinău, where she remembers traces of the Soviet Union meshed with the sudden influx of Western culture. “Our history with fashion was so focused on clothing as a necessity, as something to cover your body rather than fashion,” she says. This bare-bones clothes philosophy was countered with the emergence of the , a person who sold contraband like jeans and electronics on the black market in the Soviet Union. “[] was part of the consumerist behavior being formed within the region,” says Novruzova. Her love of fashion grew as the internet expanded and she was exposed to the user-generated era of Blogspot and lookbook.nu, which acted as Novruzova’s gateway to the world beyond Chişinău. “I was still in the capital, but the truth is there was no access to magazines. I couldn’t have gotten a copy of American ,” she says. “It was whatever was circulating on the internet.”

Marooned in Moldova in 2013, the designer wanted out of the country to study fashion. But she had no prior experience. “My parents were like, ‘You can’t do anything: draw or drape,’” she says. “I was super determined.” Novruzova enrolled in a fashion course in London with the intention of studying at Central Saint Martins. “I went through a roller coaster,” she says. Eventually, she was accepted to study fashion design and marketing. (When she first entered the famed fashion school, Novruzova considered herself a traditional Moldovan girl: hair and nails done in a traditional babe-of-the-bloc way—a sore thumb at a place where freaky-deaky personal style is the norm.)

At CSM she befriended the designer Colleen Allen, who toiled away in the studio beside her. Allen is impressed with her progress: “Bags and shoes are hard to do, and hers are beautiful,” Allen says. “She also plays with material in an unexpected way that is challenging and successful—like the spiral denim jackets and structured velvet dresses.”Allen finds her peer’s personality in her garments: “She is really an extrovert who loves people. I wore one of her dresses when she was visiting New York, and we went to the ballet together. Her pieces feel playful to wear, which I don’t know if I expected. It’s this side of her that I know, but felt like it really translated when wearing her clothes.”

After many rejections and sleepless nights, Novruzova’s hard work at CSM culminated with her graduate collection, inspired by ’70s-era Azerbaijan and retrofuturism. It’s here that her square-toe shoes debuted.Novruzova doesn’t want to be put into a post-Soviet corner, but there are natural traces of the culture within her work. (While she is looking to relocate part-time to Paris, she does indeed love living and working in a more laid-back Moldova.) The key is that Novruzova doesn’t force that post-Soviet environment or motifs. “For my graduate collection, [post-Soviet influence] was definitely there, and the referencing stayed for my first season within the brand,” she says. “But I think the whole post-Soviet narrative, visually speaking, is less of a mood board for me and more of a lived experience.”

Novruzova pauses our conversation to send me a TikTok of a famous saleswoman, Svetlana, who mans a guts-spilling fish booth at an open-air food bazaar in Odessa, Ukraine. Svetlana is a living made-up doll. Perfectly lined lips; evening makeup at the crack of dawn. The manicured saleswoman’s signature is a kitschy lace apron, which was a source of inspiration for Novruzova who became obsessed with finding the exact lace. She searched every possible shop in Chişinău and found one meter of it, which she used to delicately trim sleeves, pockets, and collars. “I think lace is a fabric that suits the brand DNA,” says Novruzova. “It has a domestic feeling, it has a conventional feminine energy to it but if we remove context and do something less traditional, it can be quite interesting.”Just an image of the shoes evokes a masculine stomp, but a subversive femininity peeks out of Novruzova’s clothes. “[They] can never be too pretty, too girly-pop, or too androgynous,” she says. In January, actress and patron saint of cool girls Chloë Sevigny gave a talk about her new short film Lypsinka: Toxic Femininity in New York wearing one of Novruzova’s lace-trimmed skirt sets. The piece was loaded with post-Soviet cheek: those ladylike doily trims on the pockets and hems and then, the classic freaky Fidan touch that sliced the miniskirt hem’s into a sassy inverted curve.

This braiding of masculine and feminine qualities is especially visible in one of her biggest hits: a pair of sporty nylon shorts and trousers. The pieces boast a saggy, Sandler-esque silhouette but are adorned with four dainty varsity ribbon stripes down the sides, reminiscent of adidas track pants—another Eastern European bazaar staple. For that feminine Fidan flair, the stripes descend into floppy bows that romantically droop from the hem.At this point in her career, Novruzova is keeping her own wardrobe in mind as she designs. “I view my brand more and more as having a wardrobe of my own. There is a place to do something super editorial, and creativity is why I started the brand in the first place,” she says. “It is more and more important that there is something someone can incorporate on a daily basis, or take one piece and style it.” Her new pieces are indeed evolving in their femininity, like a pair of trousers with an XXL bow design at the pelvis. Her bags are transforming to become more functional. Take her change purse bags, once stacked like hard accordions in their earlier renditions: They now come in squishable, shoulder bag form. Perhaps that accessory will follow the same trajectory as the boots.