AlbaPluma x Kelly Collaboration: 6 Beautiful Italian Barefoot Mary Jane Friulane
Meet the AlbaPluma x Kelly collection: six colorful barefoot Mary Jane friulane combining traditional Italian craftsmanship with a foot-shaped, flexible barefoot design.
I love barefoot shoes. I also love beautiful shoes. And for a long time, it hasn’t always been easy to have both.
I’ve spent years testing barefoot shoes including ballet flats and Mary Janes, and it’s hard to get the perfect combination of comfort and style. And even when you do, you’re typically left with a limited color selection of black or brown.
So when I had the opportunity to work with Italian shoemaker albaPluma, I knew I wanted to create something colorful, feminine, and full of personality—a shoe that could be the statement piece of an outfit rather than simply blend in.
Together, we created six barefoot Mary Jane friulane that bring the traditional craftsmanship and unmistakable style of this classic Italian shoe into the barefoot space.
They’re designed with the things I look for in a barefoot shoe—a naturally shaped toe box and a flat, flexible sole—but they’re also meant to be fun to look at, with velvet, suede, mesh, grosgrain ribbon, and unexpected color combinations.
And because albaPluma already specializes in traditional Italian footwear and friulane, this collaboration gave us the opportunity to do something I don’t think you see very often in the barefoot world: a beautiful, traditional shoe that incorporates the barefoot fit and feeling without taking away what makes it special.
About AlbaPluma
AlbaPluma is an Italian footwear brand with a particular focus on traditional Italian shoemaking. They’ve made sandals, clogs, sneakers, and a classic friulana Mary Jane with a barefoot shape.
And that last part is a big reason why this collaboration made so much sense.
AlbaPluma already has experience making friulane and working with the artisans and manufacturers who specialize in this traditional style. For this collection of barefoot Mary Janes, we took that experience and combined it with my own experience testing and wearing barefoot shoes to create something we’re both really excited about.
We added a second strap, made some adjustments to the fit, and worked together on a collection of colors and materials that complement each other while still giving each style its own look. Along with the traditional velvet, we also incorporated suede and mesh to give the collection a little more variety.
And perhaps most importantly, the shoes are made in the Friuli region of northern Italy, where the friulana originated.
The History of the Friulana
You might look at these and think they’re just another trendy Mary Jane. A velvet Mary Jane is incredibly popular right now, and so many brands are doing their own take on this style. But the friulana has more than a century of history behind it…and its beginnings are much more humble than you might expect.
The story starts in the countryside of Friuli, in northeastern Italy, where these shoes were originally known as scarpets or papusse. They weren’t designed to be fashionable. They were practical shoes made by women for their families, using whatever materials they had available.
Old clothing, tablecloths, curtains, fabric scraps—you used what you had.
The soles were originally made by layering and stitching together pieces of old fabric, with jute from grain and seed sacks sometimes used for cushioning. Eventually, people discovered that old bicycle tires made an excellent sole: durable, waterproof, and, most importantly, grippy.
And this is one of the things I love most about the history of the friulana: the shoe kept getting better by making use of what was already around. Long before we talked about upcycling or sustainable fashion, these shoes were literally being made from discarded materials.
They weren’t just everyday shoes, either. Friulane were sometimes reserved for Sundays, weddings, village festivals, and other special occasions. Some were decorated or embroidered, and more luxurious velvet versions were worn for dressier occasions.
Eventually, the friulana traveled from the Friuli countryside to Venice, where it found a very different audience: gondoliers.
The soft rubber soles gave gondoliers traction on wet surfaces while being gentle enough not to scratch the polished wood of their boats. They were also quiet, which made them particularly well suited to moving around the narrow wooden decks of a gondola.
And that’s when this humble little shoe started its transformation.
The friulana went from being a practical shoe made from scraps in rural Friuli to becoming associated with Venetian style and aristocracy. The same basic shoe that had begun as an exercise in necessity was now being made in richer fabrics like velvet and worn as an elegant slipper.
It’s a pretty remarkable evolution for a shoe that started with old clothes and bicycle tires.
And while the materials and styling have certainly evolved, the basic idea behind the friulana has remained surprisingly consistent: soft, lightweight, flexible, practical, and made with a clever use of materials.
Which, as someone who spends a lot of time thinking about barefoot shoes, might explain why I’ve become a little obsessed with them.
What Makes a Mary Jane a Friulana?
So what exactly makes a friulana different from any other Mary Jane?
There are a few details that give the shoe its distinctive look.
Traditional friulane are typically made with a soft velvet upper, a stitched outsole, and grosgrain ribbon used for the straps or trim. The construction is intentionally soft and flexible, which is part of what makes them so comfortable.
For our collection, we kept those traditional elements and added a second strap to create the double-strap Mary Jane design.
The result is a shoe that still has the recognizable look and construction of a friulana, but with the foot-friendly shape you want from a comfortable, barefoot shoe.
The Collection: 6 Barefoot Mary Jane Friulane
Six unique barefoot Mary Jane friulane.
Pink Petal
Pink velvet with burgundy grosgrain ribbon
Pink Petal is probably the most romantic of the six. The soft pink velvet gives it that classic vintage Mary Jane feel, while the burgundy ribbon adds enough contrast to keep it from feeling overly sweet.
Autumn Plum
Deep plum velvet with bubblegum pink grosgrain ribbon
Autumn Plum is a little moodier, with a rich deep-plum velvet upper paired with and pop of bright pink.
Shadow Dot
Black Swiss dot mesh with black grosgrain ribbon
We wanted to bring something a little unconventional to this collection, and a mesh Swiss dot fabric was the perfect way to bring a current trend to a classic style.
Scarlet Dot
Burgundy Swiss dot mesh with burgundy grosgrain ribbon
Scarlet Dot takes the same Swiss dot mesh and gives it a completely different personality. The deep burgundy color makes this one feel rich and slightly dramatic, while the matching ribbon keeps the look cohesive.
Ocean Coast
Ocean blue velvet with cocoa brown grosgrain ribbon
The blue velvet Mary Jane has a beautiful saturated color, and the cocoa brown ribbon gives it a warmer, more earthy feel. It’s colorful without being difficult to wear.
Cocoa
Dark cocoa brown suede with light blue grosgrain ribbon
And finally, Cocoa. The dark brown suede is a classic color, but the light blue ribbon adds contrast to keep it from looking too serious.
Fit and Sizing
With the soft velvet, suede, and mesh uppers, these barefoot Mary Jane flats feel almost like a slipper and can be a little more forgiving than some of the stiffer leather ballet flats I’ve worn. They’re best suited for narrow to medium-width feet, while the adjustable straps make them a good option for a wider range of foot volumes. You can also adjust the volume by adding a removable insole, which is not included.
I personally wear an EU 38 based on my 23.3 cm foot length. I tend to prefer a slightly roomier fit and like to make sure I have plenty of width, but if I wanted a closer fit, I would choose the EU 37.
Final Thoughts
I’ve spent a lot of time over the years talking about the practical side of barefoot shoes: how they fit, how wide they are, how flexible the sole is, and whether they actually allow your feet to move the way they should.
But I also think it’s okay to want your shoes to be beautiful.
That’s what I wanted to bring to this albaPluma x Kelly collection of barefoot Mary Janes—fun colors, beautiful materials, and a style that can be the statement piece of an outfit. I hope you love them as much as I do!
