Take a look down any street this summer and chances are your gaze will land on shoes which accentuate the toes. And no, we’re not talking about them being contained in regular sandals.
From the humble and practical flip-flop to less seasonal Tabis: once you start looking, it’s impossible to escape an onslaught of fashionably-dressed digits. Jonathan Bailey wore flip-flops on the red carpet recently; Doechii has been photographed wearing five-toed shoes, as has BLACKPINK band member Jennie. Charli xcx loves wearing a Tabi flat, as does pop superstar Dua Lipa.
But it’s not just the celebs. Second hand platform Depop has seen demand for the search term ‘barefoot toe shoes’ increase by 205 per cent this year, while at the extreme end of the trend, Vibram Five Finger Shoes have risen in popularity by 296 per cent since April.
In short, it’s a good time to be a toe, but why are these humblest of digits suddenly dominating the fashion spotlight?
Feet have been inching their way back into the fashion spotlight for a while now. In 2023, British Vogue ran a piece titled ‘Toes are the new legs’, noting the rise of fashion designers — Elena Velez, Wesley Harriott, Daniel Lee, Aaron Esh and Natasha Zinko among them — choosing to spotlight them in their designs. The omnipresence of the split-toed Tabi (the London fashion girl’s must-have since at least 2023) probably laid the groundwork to some extent, as did the ‘ugly shoe’ movement, which celebrates divisive, out-there styles ahead of sleek, pared back designs.
Then, in June, The Row launched a £600 pair of flip-flops that seem to have supercharged the trend for them after they gained pace last summer.
The humble flip-flop seems to be becoming ubiquitous in fashion circles. Interest in them has spiked by 849 per cent in the last two months. Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Zoe Kravitz have all been rocking them the past few months — both flat version and the exceptionally Noughties-inspired heeled flip-flop.
“We’ve seen classic flip flop brands such as Havaianas surge in popularity on Depop with searches up 56 per cent this month, partly driven by collaborations with popular brands such as trending Spanish label Gimaguas and fashion-forward brand ambassadors such as Gigi Hadid,” a Depop spokesperson added.
But it’s not just flip-flops. Coperni has its Five-Toe Ballerina shoes, Balenciaga has its Barefoot Zero Shoe (kept on one’s foot by a single curve of plastic that slips over the big toe) and Phoebe Philo debuted a pair of heeled flip-flops as part of her 2024 collection. And that’s without mentioning the Vibram FiveFingers toe shoes, which look just as home on a hiking trail as a New York subway.
Liana Satenstein, 35, has more opinions. The New York-based fashion journalist wrote about the ‘footnaissance’ in her Neverworns newsletter, comparing it to several other naked dressing trends that leave little to the imagination. Such as, for instance, the see-through dress trend, or indeed the short-shorts that are currently being worn by It boy of the moment, Paul Mescal.
In a world where everybody’s showing everything, all the time, “nothing is titillating anymore,” she wrote. That seems to include feet, “but there’s something so sensual about [them], from ‘toe cleavage’ to the curve of an ankle.”
Perhaps this rediscovery of the alluring toe also points to a new burgeoning fashion trend: toe rings. Rihanna was way ahead of the curve, wearing diamond encrusted ones (estimated to cost around £450,000) as far back as 2023; a good indicator, if ever there was one, that these will be a thing soon, if they’re not already. Recently, she’s been joined by none other than Carla Bruni who wore three of them to the 80th Venice Film Festival, and Bad Bunny, who sports them on the cover art for his new single.
Unlike hands, hair and faces, all of which can be ‘tweaked’ to slow down the ageing process, there’s something comfortingly equalising about toes. And with despite the variable British weather, there’s no better time than summer to root around in the back of your wardrobe and dig out a pair of old flip-flops. Go on: they’re fashionable now.
