Le Loafer Monogram Penny Slippers — Pearl, US 11.5 / EU 44.5

Under Anthony Vaccarello, who has led Saint Laurent's creative direction since April 2016, Le Loafer has been built several ways: on a chunky rubber sole with a 3.5 cm stacked heel and an almond toe, in eel with a collapsible heel counter, in suede. The Monogram Penny Slipper in pearl is the quiet version. It drops the platform for a 15 mm heel and a leather sole, trades the almond toe for a round one, and works in smooth lambskin instead of eel or suede. The Cassandre monogram shrinks to a single metal plaque on the right shoe, so the pair carries a deliberate asymmetry.

The upper is smooth lambskin in a soft pearl, close to white, cut as a round-toe slip-on with a penny saddle across the vamp. The gold-tone metal Cassandre plaque sits on the right shoe's saddle, small enough that it catches light rather than announcing itself. At the back, the leather heel tab is embossed with the Saint Laurent logo. Underneath, a low 15 mm (0.6 in) heel sits over a leather sole, which keeps the profile flat and the stride quiet. The pair was made in Italy.

Read quickly, this is a penny loafer. Read closely, it is a house slipper wearing a loafer's vocabulary: the penny saddle and embossed heel tab borrow from the campus classic, while the pale lambskin, the barely-there heel and the lone plaque make it behave like something meant for the apartment and the street at once. It is Saint Laurent tailoring reduced to a whisper, a loafer for people who want the monogram found rather than announced. Size US 11.5 (EU 44.5).