Sandals are now produced by labels that are world renowned, obscure and available at every price point. Photo: Vinny's
If for most of recent urban history the preferred form of footwear for men in a city was the shoe, we have definitively entered a new era – the Age of the Sandal.
This decidedly unscientific observation is based on a recent walking tour of Manhattan from top to bottom – Inwood to Battery Park – on the East and West sides (although, things may be different in other American urban centres).
Everywhere, in every setting, above and below ground, people – male-identified people – were flaunting their toes.
Whether they were doing this because, as Women’s Wear Daily reported in July, we are in the middle of a booming sandals trend, or merely because it is so hot, who can know?
There is no question that luxury labels have leaped on the bandwagon. During the Spring/Summer 2024 runway shows in Europe, designers paired safari jackets, Miami Vice pastels and drapey Armaniesque 1980s suits with footwear that gave full ventilation to heel and toe.
Well before Justin Bieber was spotted exiting Bar Pitti in Greenwich Village in June shod in a pair of Mary Janes, a look that purportedly set off an instantaneous trend (never mind that Mary Janes are practically combat boots relative to Havaianas), lifestyle magazines as diverse as GQ and Ebony were already aggressively hyping skimpy footwear.
Sandals are now produced by labels that are world renowned, obscure and available at every price point.
There are Greek fishermen sandals by the Copenhagen lifestyle company Vinny’s. There are slides like the ones Veronique Nichanian paired with relaxed-fit trousers and cashmere cardigans at Hermes. There are clog-style slip-ons like those produced by Rick Owens, Bottega Veneta and the Row.
Read more: Stay relaxed: Men's fashion is currently focused on comfort and practicality
The Manolo Blahnik crisscross Otawi sandals are, at US$675 (approximately RM3,000) a pair, an exorbitant version of the ones your uncle wears to grill hot dogs.
There are, inevitably, Birkenstocks.
Let us pause for a moment to consider again the astonishing transformation of what was, at one time in the not-so-distant past, a niche hippie staple, mostly popular among commune dwellers and people who shopped in the Brattleboro Food Co-Op.
Now, it’s the Type O blood of footwear, a fashion universal.
Take a walk around Harlem, midtown Manhattan, Greenwich Village and SoHo, and you will probably notice that the sandal of the season is, without any doubt, the Birkenstock Arizona (or, for the more fashion forward, the big-buckle Madrid).
Both models were so ubiquitous on city streets that it’s clear why the 250-year-old company reported revenues of nearly US$1.6bil (RM7.1bil) last year.
And while Birkenstocks provide marginally more foot coverage than the flip-flops that designer Tom Ford once famously told People magazine he “wouldn’t be caught dead wearing”, they still produce an egregious display of toes perhaps not previously deemed suitable for city streets.
Yet, what constitutes suitability anymore?
Even into the early decade of this century, visitors to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the neo-Gothic landmark in midtown Manhattan, were encouraged to observe a dress code.
Like those at houses of worship around the world, it was one that underscored modesty. Bare shoulders and, for women, uncovered heads were a no-no. So, too, were miniskirts, shorts and sandals.
Roughly 5.5 million people flood into the cathedral each year, and, inevitably, policing propriety has been forced to take a back seat to bag checks.
Who has time to bust visitors for offending Tevas when the real possibility exists of people carrying weapons or explosives into public buildings? “Revealing” can be interpreted in many ways.
“I have never, ever worn slippers or sandals outside my house,” said Prasan Shah, a co-founder of the cult menswear label Original Madras Trading Co.
He meant since coming to live in the US.
“I feel childish using this word, but it’s icky,” he said.
Read more: Toeing the trend: Fashion has an obsession with open footwear this season
Until Shah came to this country at 16, he lived mainly in the steamy tropical south Indian city of Chennai, where sandals are worn in almost every setting.
He said: “When my father sees me now in sneakers and socks, he’s like: ‘What’s wrong with you? Aren’t you hot?’”
It is one thing for designers and (fashion) editors to propose open-toed sandals as the shoe of the moment, Shah said. It is another to slip on a pair and set out on a daily route that’s booby-trapped with used gum, trash, bottles of taxi driver tea and other less salubrious gunk.
“I just don’t want to expose my feet to all that,” he said.
Worse yet, the nattily suited designer said last week, wearing sandals in the city is like giving up your urban cred.
“Especially for those of us in our 20s and 30s, the excitement of being here is the urbanity,” Shah, 32, said.
“Sure, if I was living in New Jersey, I’d be happy wearing my flip-flops to Target. But when I see flip-flops on the streets of New York City, am I rolling my eyes a little bit?”
It was a rhetorical question. – The New York Times
