Shoes That Look Expensive But Are Actually Affordable

4:30 PM, April 23 2012

By Natalie Matthews

Cheap shoes are awesome—except when they look like cheap shoes. Fortunately, the sandals, stilletos, flats and metallic fashiony sneakers in the slideshow below are anything but jenky. They're each under $200, but look way pricier due to their shapes and materials. (Or due to some undefinable but obvious fancy shoe hallmark, the kind that sparks "Are those Céline?" inquiries all day long.)

Firsthand experience is the best proof: I have these and people always think they're Phillip Lim.

Ballet flats can look cheap when they're too soft and flimsy, so the metal heel on this pair gives them a fancier edge.

It's the Chanel-like cap toe effect.

Seeing these would make me a little depressed if I'd bought the $500 Pierre Hardy lookalikes.

My boss has these, and at first sight I thought it was proof she makes way more money than I do.

Ornate smoking slippers don't have to cost $700.

Not Bottega Veneta, but everyone else will probably think so.

With a pin-thin stiletto, fringe detail and rastafarian color scheme, they're so unnecessary it doesn't make sense for them not to be expensive.

I thought they were Giuseppe Zanotti. (It's the pony hair material, which looks way more luxe than typical animal printed fabric.)

The best brogues look sturdy, like something you'd find clomping around Saville Row. These patent leather ones have that feel without the hefty price tag.