Jenna Ortega Trades Her Highbury Platform Boots for Heavy Combat Lace-Ups in Marrakech

Jenna Ortega brought a moment of dark glamour with an edge to the 22nd Marrakech International Film Festival on Saturday, arriving for the Jury Press Conference in a black slip dress and a pair of lace-up combat boots. The appearance marked day two of her duties on this year’s jury, which includes Anya Taylor-Joy, Celine Song and Bong Joon Ho.

Her boots, cut in smooth black leather, carried the shape of a classic combat style. The round toe showed a hint of surface wear, while light creasing ran through the vamp — signs of a pair built for movement rather than display. A full lace-up front ran high on the shaft with evenly spaced eyelets, and an interior zipper sat under the facing for easier entry. The base was set on a thick, layered lug sole that brought extra height and structure without veering into platform territory.

The shift stood out against her recent run of boots in Marrakech. Ortega has worn her Roker Highbury Platform Boots under both of her red carpet gowns on opening night and again on Saturday evening, choosing the brand’s sculpted, elevated silhouette even when the hemlines concealed them. Compared to that cleaner, more architectural shape, the lace-up pair at the press conference offered a traditional combat construction — flatter, heavier, and closer to workwear lineage than runway hybrid.

The choice also came after a stretch of sharper footwear during her “Wednesday” press tour earlier this year. In Sydney, she stepped into Christian Louboutin’s Kate Max Booty Spikes, a clawed ankle boot defined by mirrored hardware. Weeks before that, she wore Miista’s corset-laced Shana boots in New York, a knee-high wedge style nodding to ghillie lacing techniques. The combat silhouette in Marrakech read as a simpler, more utilitarian entry within that broader pattern.

Ortega wore the boots with a black slip dress featuring a plunging V-neck and lace at the bodice, topped with a black blazer. The combination carried a faint 1990s grunge imprint, with the mix of satin, lace and heavy leather reflecting one of the decade’s defining contrasts between delicate fabrics and harder finishes.