Ask about Abraham Ortuño Perez in the closed circles of the industry, be that among editors, stylists, or designers, and you’ll hear of his robust credentials in the footwear world. He’s designed hit shoes, It-shoes, for Jonathan Anderson at JW Anderson and Loewe—remember those paw-shaped boots for the former and the viral balloon heels for the latter?—and for Simon Porte Jacquemus: see the stacked geometric sandals from a few years back, and most recently those fabulously trippy double stilettos. Those same crowds of people, insiders, as we often call them, also wear Abra’s adorable ballerina sneakers and his punkish, spiky slingbags—both of which have been knocked o… err, referenced, endlessly by now.

But since last season’s standout show at Paris Fashion Week, there’s been an evident shift. Folks are now also wearing Ortuño Perez’s ready-to-wear, which had long been a crucial and compelling, yet relatively small, component of the Abra world. I spotted his cartoonishly oversized surf shorts on a few cool guys this summer, and he’s had a couple of editorial hits—an open-work dress on Lady Gaga for a magazine; one of his closing frocks from fall 2025 on model Amelia Gray. I’ve also clocked some of his stuff in our street style galleries, including on a fellow editor sitting next to me at a show at New York Fashion Week. All this to say, Ortuño Perez is, at last, getting credit for the ingenuity of his clothes.

Which brings us to today. Ortuño Perez showed his spring collection at a presentation at Dover Street Market in Paris, placing it on ’80s-style mannequins all with the wigs and full faces of makeup they featured then. He paired it with a fashion film and a printed lookbook “on a pedestal, kind of like the Bible,” he said with a chuckle. Ortuño Perez said he looked at good girl-gone-bad heroines from movies from the ’80s and ’90s—Olivia Newton John in Grease, Amy Locane in Cry-Baby—to inform the spirit of his collection. He said he was particularly interested in the contrast between the girliness and softness of these characters and the grittier personas they embody later on in the films. Not unlike Ortuño Perez himself, who has a ton of tattoos, including a knuckle set, and can look quite tough at first glance, his collection charmingly walked the tightrope between cutesy and edgy. (The designer’s knuckle ink is a set of Hello Kitty characters, by the way.)

Some folded and draped skirts—cut in beige as to resemble men’s chinos—plus a run of trousers with oversized triangular welt pockets down the front, embraced both the femme and the masc sides of Abra, as did some cargo shorts cut in blushy pink satin finished with rosette details. Ortuño Perez cuts a fabulous jacket—a sharp-shouldered leather piece and a voluminous bomber stood out as must-haves here, as did his shoes, which remain the heroes in this story: Some penny loafers rendered as stilettos or a fantastic suede boot with fringe and yet another rosette. Therein lies the success of this effort: Ortuño Perez has made the full Abra look as covetable as those hit shoes he designs on the side.