Lock up your Margielas! There is a "Tabi swiper" on the loose

The ultimate fashion crime has been committed.

via MAX

The ultimate fashion crime has been committed.

As little as two years ago, one shoe ruled the IYKYK fashion crowd above all others. The Maison Margiela Tabi has been part of the subversive fashionphile’s lore since they were introduced in 1988, but in the past year, it has infiltrated the mainstream, due to TikTok doing what TikTok does best. Fast forward to the present day, and one pair of Mary Jane Tabis has been the topic of conversation over the weekend for a truly heinous crime, involving a Tinder Swindler-type of fashion man who has been dubbed the "Tabi swiper", and an unassuming Tabi-owning woman.

The crime took place in New York City, where a woman by the name of "Lex" locked eyes with a medium attractive man on the streets of SoHo. Hours later, she received a message from him on Tinder. It turns out they had matched before and he wrote to her, saying that it was "nice to bump into her". The two start talking, arrange to meet, and before Lex knew it, a hipster-on-hipster crime had taken place from the very comfort of her own apartment. It was here, post coitus, after she had shooed him from her dwelling the morning after, that she noticed her pair of Mary Jane Tabis were missing from their spot on her shoe rack.

She had recalled, as she explains in her video, that the night before the alleged bandit was waxing lyrical about how much he wanted a pair of Tabis, and without wanting to jump to conclusions, Lex became increasingly suspicious. She went to Tinder to gingerly ask if he might have seen them, only to find that she had been unmatched. From there, she went into her call log to retrieve his number to send him a text—also gone! She alleges that he deleted his number from her call log when he went on her phone to "show her a playlist" (this man is a walking red flag).

Growing increasingly suspicious and alarmed that this man had robbed her in broad daylight, she took to TikTok to tell her side of the story, and ask if anyone knew the man in question. What she seemingly did not expect, was for the video to go viral and for multiple women to come forward and expose a truly sinister plot twist.

What these women alerted Lex to, was the fact that they were not only quite sure they knew the alleged burglar, but that they knew his girlfriend, who has just received a pair of Mary Jane Tabis from him as a gift. 

The Tabi swiper finally reached out to Lex, first denying that he did anything wrong, and then after being sent a screenshot of his girlfriend wearing Lex’s Tabis, admitted that he'd been caught and promised that they would be returned. 

Lex triumphantly retrieved her prized Margiela’s and we’re still yet to hear from the poor girlfriend who was regifted a pair of stolen shoes only for them to be stolen right back, but let this be a warning to all of the fashion girlies of NYC and its surrounds: your Margiela’s are no longer safe! There are cargo pant-wearing men who have cottoned onto their illustrious status and will dupe you with an elaborate plan and a fake Spotify playlist to take them for themselves, or their girlfriends. 

For those who are not yet across the cult status of the Maison Margiela Tabi, and are wondering what all of the fuss is about over a pair of shoes, not only do these babies retail for over $1,000, but the Tabi cult is something of a ministry for fashion folks who have a particular affection for fashion history and, thanks to the internet, onlookers aplenty. 

“A Tabi is one of those ‘the girls who get it, get it’ pieces that establishes an immediate kinship if someone expresses appreciation for them." Content Editor Gladys Lai recently told Style Editor Annie Brown in her official breakdown of the popularization of Tabis. "So yes I definitely have made friends from wearing them (and some friendships have been strengthened by the discovery of a shared love of Tabis). Though I mostly spend my time trying to convince my existing friends to join me on the Tabi train,"

If there's one thing that the internet is going to do, it's to not let a girl have her Tabis taken off her in cold blood!

Originally published as Lock up your Margielas! There is a "Tabi swiper" on the loose