At Fashion Week, Footwear Fell Flat — Literally
Among a spate of schleppable bags, sexy office clothes, and external underwear, there was something strange happening underfoot at Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2024. Hope you don't have high arches: fashion brands are all luxurifying the world's most ordinary flat footwear.
Yes, the SS24 vibe is incredibly affordable footwear made incredibly unaffordable. These ain't your grandma's jelly sandals.
A little brand called Chanel really exemplified the disconnect with a Spring/Summer 2024 runway show full of flip-flops, the flattest, humblest shoes ever made. Will there ever be a more insouciantly wealthy shoe than the Chanel flip-flop, a flat piece of leather and thong strap laden with teeny, tiny interlocking Cs?
Well, Chanel's luxury peers certainly offered some stiff competition for SS24.
Courtesy of Hermès: superflat trek sandals that look like refined Tevas. Courtesy of Miu MIu: nearly invisible barefoot sandals. Courtesy of Stella McCartney: netted slides that take the babouche to the beach. Courtesy of The Row: woven jelly sandals and... hotel room slippers?
Oh, those wacky Olsen twins! What'll they think of next.
Even Coperni's landmark PUMA sneaker is an extension of the movement towards low-profile footwear, its minimalist upper inspired by form-fitting football boots.
Summer is indeed the season to eschew extraneous bulk. You wanna soak up the rays with maximum skin-to-sun ratio.
Whereas weightier shoes are visually imposing, flat footwear, by contrast, feels delicate, unbothered. You have to be carefree to be that close to the ground. And low footwear epitomizes ease.
The move towards subtler shoes dovetails with the refined normalcy that defined the SS24 collections.
This season offered an overarching selection of comparatively conventional clothing, apparel that didn't overwhelm so much as it... whelmed.
Sure, there were some real wow looks but less due to great clothes and more because of social media-friendly head-turners. This was gimmick over garment, if garment at all.
That's no sin, by the way, because this is fashion week. You can do whatever you want. But outré moments don't make the rest of the collection any more exciting, though that appeared to be exactly the intent this season.
Even the explicitly adventurous looks were often anchored by reliably minimal footwear, as if to say, "Let's not go too crazy here."
Flat footwear, appropriately, has an anchoring effect. These shoes literally bring the outfit down to earth, even if they're JW Anderson's sparkly ballet flats and they're poking out from a double-zippered high-neck sweater and enormously high-waisted furry pants.
It's a proportional thing.
Speaking of proportions, this season's flat footwear are all outta shape, pricewise.
Low-profile shoes are typically quite affordable. Ballet flats, slippers, trek sandals, flip-flops: these are the shoes of the proletariat. Well, the semi-well-heeled prole, I suppose.
But this kinds of footwear is as down-to-earth as it is, well, down to earth. These luxury versions of ordinary flat shoes are physical idiosyncrasies, in a fun way.
It's part of the appeal of the inimitable Chanel espadrille or seeing a wiener dog wear a top hat: familiar, fancy, and quite flat.
