How the humble flip-flop became the shoe of the summer with unbelievable price tags to match
There is a thing called fashion creep. Sometimes the journey from ordinary to crazily coveted takes years and years and then one day shazam! It’s there on the catwalk, celebrities are wearing it, and what was unassuming and unworthy of being called ‘fashion’ at all has become a white-hot must-have.
It will be something that Kendall and Kylie Jenner must be seen in, that costs upwards of £800, and that is all of a sudden the pinnacle of what’s cool and desirable.
And this summer the gold goes to — wait for it — the posh flip-flop.
You’re probably thinking — oh, they’re calling it a flip-flop, but it can’t possibly be an actual flimsy, rubber-soled, flip-flop, like the ones I wear to the beach.
And you would be partly right. Some of them — namely Chanel’s — come in black velvet (£790) or metallic leather (£810) and some are chunkier, with thicker soles and wider straps.
Keely Hodgkinson, Team GB’s 800m gold medallist, was in Marbella this week wearing green Louis Vuitton sliders that retail for a cool £860.
Keely Hodgkinson, Team GB ’s 800m gold medallist, was in Marbella this month wearing green Louis Vuitton sliders that retail for a cool £860
Model wearing Chanel black velvet flip-flops walks down the runway during the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2024 show in October last year
Chanel black velvet flip-flops are on sale for £790
She was also wearing Chanel sunglasses (£510) and a Balenciaga Ibiza bag (£850), but the Louis Vuitton sliders were the priciest item and the biggest noise in fashion terms, beating the basket bag and glasses into second and third position — and that’s where we are now. Feet first.
Still, if you want to look up-to-the-minute fashionable you're wearing flip flops, or sliders if you prefer.
Bottega Veneta sent flip-flops down the catwalk; the models were wearing them at Prada’s little sister Miu Miu.
Luxury label The Row, beloved by Hollywood aristocracy, is selling rubber ‘beach flip-flops’ for £630, which Kendall and Kylie Jenner, as well as actresses Zoe Kravitz and Michelle Williams, have all been pictured in on holiday this summer.
This particular style has a luxe polished leather footbed and this is the footwear that, along with your sunglasses and bag, now make your outfit Instagram catnip.
If you fancy something a bit flashier Dolce & Gabbana has collaborated with the Brazilian brand Havaianas on a line of animal-print flip-flops in rubber and PVC (£138).
Kendall Jenner wearing £630 flip-flops from The Row, beloved by Hollywood aristocracy, earlier this month in Paris
Michelle Williams pictured wearing £630 flip-flops from The Row in New York in June
Kylie Jenner pictured wearing £630 flip-flops from The Row during a holiday to Rome in Italy last month
The Row's rubber beach flip-flops are on sale for £630
All the big designer brands have taken up flip-flops this summer and elevated them to the position of 24-hour sandals you wear with a sundress, or jeans and a T-shirt, or crisp tailored trousers, or a little black dress, and now the only question is who will win the race to be the top of the flip-flop chart? So how has it come to this?
You can trace this flip-flop explosion back to Havaianas in the early 2000s. The Brazilian brand’s version is noticeably comfier, better made and more durable and over a few years became the only flip-flops to have.
Back then we winced at paying £20 — double what you would for normal end-of-the-pier flip-flops — but now (£23 a pair), they seem like a great investment.
Havaianas sowed the seed for what we see unfolding now. The distinctive logo on the thong gives its flip-flops an extra cachet and cool.
Turn up to a summer barbecue wearing any old flip-flops and you look a bit like you’ve just got out of the shower. Turn up wearing Havaianas (the square toe variations cost an extra £7 and are currently top of the younger generation’s shopping list) and they’re the equivalent of Adidas Sambas or a pair of Gucci trainers.
That’s the other element that has brought us to this flip-flop point — the ascendancy of sportswear. Now your trainers might be the most fashion-forward bit of your outfit.
We’ve had pool slides and designer variations on the theme. (Isabel Marant’s were the ones to have a decade ago.)
We’ve had trainers (that one’s ongoing) and now it’s the turn of flip-flops — the official footwear of surfers. The Brazilian Olympic team even wore them as part of their uniform in Paris.
Utilitarian footwear — whether it’s crocs or cork footbed sandals — is now right at the forefront of fashion because it’s what people want to wear and they inject a casual, laid-back modernity to every outfit.
Flip-flops also have the advantage of being about as minimal and light as footwear can be, so they work as well with floaty skirts and midi dresses as with shorts or wide-leg trousers.
Birkenstock Boston clogs are still big news this summer but they’re solid and suede. If you want to look pretty and fresh, a flip-flop is a far better bet.
And if you fear the flatness of flip-flops, then there are now ‘kitflops’ — flip-flops with a little kitten heel. There were plenty of these on show in the front row and on the feet of influencers last week in Denmark during Copenhagen Fashion Week.
It’s also worth remembering FitFlops, at this point, the thong sandals with fat-moulded triple-density soles that are by a country mile the most comfortable shoes for schlepping around in the heat. Fitflop and the British designer Roksanda are collaborating on a range due out in September but you can buy the basic toe-post FitFlop now for £75.
Are flip-flops for everyone? Most certainly, but they do, of course, mean your entire foot is on show so give those Hobbity heels a thorough scrub and moisturise, and get yourself a pedicure. Then wear with . . . anything.
