On Friday, Luigi Mangione arrived at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse for his first appearance before a judge this year in a dark-green cable-knit sweater underneath a bulletproof vest, khaki pants, and, most important, brown leather loafers (no socks). Someone in the photographers’ pool had the wherewithal to snap a picture of Mangione’s feet, shackled and crossed at the ankle beneath the table. The reaction to this image has been nothing short of feral.
A post on X of the photo captioned “The shackled feet of Luigi Mangione” has at least 35 million views. “They are making me sweat,” one person posted in response; another said, “I should be worshipping them.”
According to WWD, searches for “luigi mangione ankles” have increased by 500 percent. The fervor for this moment is what I can only assume it was like when women’s hems finally got an inch shorter in the early 1900s and showed some freaking fibula. The public is desperate for, and salivating over, any glimpse they can get of this alleged assassin who just so happens to look like a J.Crew model in every single photo that’s been released since his arrest. Normally, the lack of socks here would feel questionable to me — sweaty, squelching feet inside a leather shoe?! But his fans seem to have given Mangione a pass on account of this combo being a “traditional component of Italian formalwear.” Noted!