Who is Amina Muaddi? The Paris shoe designer behind the flared heel
Who is Amina Muaddi? The Paris shoe designer behind the flared heel
Amina Muaddi is a footwear designer born in Romania to a Jordanian father and a Romanian mother, and the label that carries her name is a Paris house founded in August 2018. It is known for one idea above all: a stiletto that flares into a small cone at the base, so the shoe stands on a wider footprint than a pin heel of the same height. The house calls it the signature heel. It sits under the Begum slingback, the Gilda and Lupita slippers and most of the range, and it is the shape people mean when they say they want an Amina Muaddi.
Where she comes from
Muaddi was born in Romania. Her family moved to Amman shortly after her birth, and she returned to Romania with her mother at six after her parents separated. She has said she had decided on fashion by the age of nine. She trained at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, then worked as an assistant stylist for Condé Nast titles, among them Vogue Italia, L’Uomo Vogue and GQ in New York, before learning footwear from the artisans of the Riviera del Brenta, the shoemaking district between Padua and Venice. In Paris she worked on the footwear line of the couturier Alexandre Vauthier.
Oscar Tiye, then her own name
In 2013 she co-founded Oscar Tiye, a footwear label that showed at Milan Fashion Week the same year. She left it in 2017 and launched her own label in August 2018. Footwear News named it Launch of the Year that December, and named Muaddi Designer of the Year in 2019. Rihanna commissioned her to design the footwear for Fenty at the end of 2019, and the first drop arrived in July 2020. A capsule with AWGE, the creative agency of A$AP Rocky, followed in December 2020. In February 2023 she received the Neiman Marcus Award for Innovation in Fashion.
What the shoes are
The range is built on a handful of lasts that keep their names from season to season. The Lupita is the square open-toe slipper on the signature heel. The Gilda is the same slipper with a crystal ankle strap. The Begum is the pointed slingback with a starburst crystal brooch at the toe, and the Holli is the plain pointed slingback on the same heel. The Alexa is a slipper with an oblique almond toe on a flared stiletto, the Anok family runs on a classic stiletto, and the Dalida is a square-toe platform. The Glass styles cut the upper in clear PVC and the heel in plexiglass. The materials are silk satin, lamb and goat nappa, patent calf, suede and hand-set glass crystals, and every pair is made in Italy. Every style is explained here.
Who wears it
Rihanna is the wearer most closely associated with the house, through the Fenty commission and her own wardrobe. Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Gigi Hadid and Rosé of Blackpink have all been photographed in the shoes. The label sells through its own site and through department stores and boutiques, and the shoes turn up at weddings, on red carpets and at the kind of dinner where a satin slipper and a bare ankle are the point.
Amina Muaddi at Luxury Shoes
Luxury Handbags carries 160 Amina Muaddi shoes from $1,200 to $2,850 and 22 bags from $1,670 to $4,070, all of them in the Amina Muaddi collection. The shoes are listed on the EU ladder from 35 to 42, and the sizing guide explains which styles run small. Every Amina Muaddi piece at Luxury Handbags is authenticated before dispatch and ships worldwide by DHL Express and FedEx International Priority. Most regions ship Delivered Duty Unpaid, so local duties and taxes fall due on import; the full terms are in the logistics and returns protocol.
More Amina Muaddi guides
Amina Muaddi and Rihanna, Every style explained, The Lupita, The Gilda, The Begum, The Holli, The Alexa, The Anok, The Dalida platform, The Camelia, The Gigi and Juliette, The Glass PVC shoes, The bags, Sizing guide, Are they comfortable?, Price guide, Where to buy, Sale and outlet, Real vs fake, Wedding shoes, How to style, Black heels, White and ivory, Silver and crystal, Nude heels, Brands like Amina Muaddi, The 2026 edit, Heel heights, Materials and care, Glossary, History timeline, vs Mach and Mach, vs Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo and Aquazzura.
Frequently asked questions
Is Amina Muaddi a luxury brand?
Yes. The shoes are made by hand in Italy from silk satin, nappa, patent calf, suede and hand-set crystals, the label sells through the same stores as the Paris couture houses, and Footwear News named its founder Designer of the Year in 2019. At Luxury Handbags the shoes run $1,200 to $2,850 and the bags $1,670 to $4,070.
Where is Amina Muaddi from?
The designer was born in Romania to a Jordanian father and a Romanian mother and grew up between Amman and Romania. The label is based in Paris and the shoes are made in Italy.
What is Amina Muaddi famous for?
The flared signature heel, a stiletto that widens into a small cone at the base, and the crystal-strap satin slippers built on it: the Gilda, the Lupita and the Begum slingback. The Fenty footwear line she designed for Rihanna in 2020 made the name known far beyond fashion.
Are Amina Muaddi shoes made in Italy?
Yes. The house designs in Paris and makes every pair by hand in Italy, and its warehouse is in Italy too.
Which celebrities wear Amina Muaddi?
Rihanna, Kylie Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Bella Hadid, Gigi Hadid and Rosé of Blackpink have all been photographed in the shoes.
Sources and method
Checked on 17 September 2026 by Gemma Deeks, fashion editor at Luxury Shoes . Product facts, the heel heights, compositions, dimensions and the fits-true-to-size lines, come from the house’s own product pages; the sizing advice is quoted from the house FAQ; the biography and the dates come from the Wikipedia article on Amina Muaddi and its sources; prices and counts are Luxury Shoes ’s live catalogue on the date above and move with stock. Where a claim could not be checked against one of these it was left out.
- Amina Muaddi FAQ: sizing advice, made in Italy, warehouse in Italy
- Amina Muaddi product pages: heel heights, compositions, dimensions, fit lines
- Amina Muaddi on Wikipedia: biography, Oscar Tiye, Fenty, AWGE, awards
- Wikidata Q107479558
- Luxury Handbags live catalogue, 17 September 2026: prices and stock
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