Odd-looking shoes that are hybrids of the practical and the fashionable are everywhere. From the five-toed sneaker to the snoafer, footwear never looked so awkward. What’s the appeal?
For some people shoes are an afterthought. The more inconspicuous the better. For others, they take centre stage – the main character of an outfit. But where a showstopper shoe might once have meant a Manolo Blahnik stiletto, for the fashion-forward these days, it’s just as likely to mean something flat, wide, possibly a bit gross and perhaps even looking not unlike a potato – in a word, bizarre.
The weird shoe
There are the shoes that laugh in the face of elegance or “good taste” to offer something unexpected, bizarre or outright daft. Think Crocs or those five-toed shoes that clothe toes like a glove; or the iconic frog wellington boots, the Wellipet, that Jonathan Anderson brought back out of the pond and on to the catwalk in 2023.
Clogs in general have offered a rich seam of inspiration, from sensible orthopaedic models to avant-garde takes, such as the jelly clogs with an embossed rococo-style design from Parisian brand Y/Project. Then there are the currently infamous Gardana gardening clogs the colour of mucus that are seen on trendy feet from Brooklyn to Paris.
The Frankenshoe
And among other things, mutation and cross-breeding are “in”. There is the so-called “Frankenshoe”, a hybrid of shoe silhouettes mashed into one. Among the best-known hybrid-shoe is the sneakerina – a dainty, balletic trainer-pump – which jeté’d its way across the fashion industry last year
The flat, wide, five-toed shoe was originally intended to be for barefoot-style walking.
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