Vision-Board Your Vacation In A Pair Of Woven Mules

When it comes to a summer shoe, there’s nothing better than a slip-on style like the mule. It’s sandal-adjacent, with the same ease of wear and skin exposure, but keeps feet a little more covered than its skimpier cousin, which is great news for those of us who don’t have room in our lives (or our budgets) for a bi-monthly pedicure. And while mules are now such a footwear staple that they come in almost every fathomable fabrication, we’re declaring our particular allegiance to the woven slipper look for summer.

Why is this silhouette so summer-appropriate? There’s something about the woven or braided upper that carries connotations of ease, simplicity, and most crucially, vacation. Such a sandal is usually made from natural matter like raffia or leather — materials that have been used in shoe-making for centuries — can feel like they were handmade in a sleepy, far-flung European hamlet by a fourth-generation cobbler who is most certainly not on Instagram.

Luckily, you don’t have to travel that far to find a shoe like this anymore, but you can still channel vacation vibes in one of the 22 mules we dug up. We’ve included both styles that feel timeless, in natural leathers with low profiles, and ones that play with bright colors, perforations, and modern accents. Click through to take a shopping voyage in preparation for your actual summer vacation.