Judging the Polarizing Shoe Trends of 2024
Is your spirit shoe a cork wedge or sneaker ballet flat?
Thanks to TikTok, videos judging trendy fashion items have become as prolific as getting-ready content. I thought it would be fun to engage in a similar exercise here as a community via polls. Ahead, let’s take a look at some of the most polarizing shoe trends of spring 2024. I offer my thoughts and encourage you to weigh in by voting. I guarantee these poll results will be way less stressful than any relating to this year’s presidential election (that is, unless you have very strong feelings about seeing other people’s feet).
I should probably offer a similar disclaimer to the ones TikTok creators do: if you don’t agree with me, who cares? Do you! I’m just a girl who spends most of her working hours in soft pants staring at a laptop.
Mesh or See-Through Flats
The holy grail of mesh flats are the $890 Alaïa ballerines (the style also comes in opaque with crystal studs for $1,250). “The only way people get it is when there’s a wait list and someone returns one. But honestly, it very rarely happens,” Heather Kaminetsky, Munich retailer Mytheresa’s North American president, told the Wall Street Journal. (Though Bergdorf seems to have some studded ones available in addition to many sizes of the mesh.)
You can get different styles of mesh flats from the stealth wealth brands like The Row, Khaite, and Bottega Veneta. Citizen reviewers on TikTok and Reels often argue against these shoes, citing the unnecessary showing of feet. My eye has not quite adjusted to the ones that look like panty hose, and I don’t understand the clear PVC ones. Knockoffs are all over Amazon, Zara, and H&M.
I haven’t worn any mesh flats as someone who works from home, quite often in soft pants (they seem more like a hard pant pairing) but am pro and will probably acquire a pair. We’re going to see people’s feet in the summer anyway.
Wedges
Wedges are all over the shoe trend roundups on fashion magazine websites, although my friend who’s a stylist says this is “a fake trend SEO shopping play” (meaning, for affiliate kickbacks). While I’m sure she’s right, the wedge had a moment at the latest Chloé show in Paris, where a slew of front-row women were seen wearing the same blocky wooden wedges, the kind that could do some real damage to the shins of their enemies. Other wedges in the spotlight these days include:
Espadrilles. There are some sleek evening espadrilles on the market now, which seem like a case study in taking a shoe that can be at least sort of comfortable and making it as uncomfortable as possible. Wedge espadrilles will always make me think of Kate Middleton at a polo match circa 2009.
Cork. This is another Kate Middleton Y2K signature, only it was made cool last summer by nepo baby royalty Lily-Rose Depp, around the time seminal show The Idol aired. As The Strategist said: “Depp cannot seem to get enough of these German orthopedic cork-wedge sandals by a brand called Wörishofer, and the Sexy European Coastal Grandma look can be yours, too, for a nasty $70 on Amazon. You know I want them bad.” That’s some of the best writing I’ve ever read in a shopping post, but personally, I don’t want them bad.
Kitten Heels
I guess these are supposed to be more comfortable than the super-high, dangerous heels we’ve been seeing. I like them in theory, but you’re still committing to a significant degree of discomfort by placing all your heel weight on a tiny point. Kitten heels make me think of what Alber Elbaz once told Natalie Portman: “Wear flats. You're short. It's much cooler not to pretend.”
Asymmetrical Toe-Freeing Heels
In 2019, the media enjoyed covering “big toe shoes,” which involve just showing the big toe. Which makes you think: who is dying to show off their big toes and their big toes alone? If you’re interested in exploring a fuller range of possibilities for freeing your toes than ever before, you’re in luck. There may never have been more creative options for toe exposure. You can expose everything BUT your big toe in shoes from Dries Van Noten.
Ballet Sneakers
The Cut reports on the fascinating emergence of the sneaker ballet flat: “The flat’s thin sole has been replaced with a chunkier one and the exposed top now has straps and laces. Is it a ballet flat? Is it a sneaker? It’s actually something else all together: the ballet sneaker.” If I know anything about science, it’s that evolutionary biologists will be studying this shoe for decades to come. I have no idea if I’m too old to wear it or not nearly old enough. (I think the former.) But as a flats-or-bust person, I’m going to go with the contrarian stance (judging by The Cut comments) and support this trend.
Mop Shoes
The balloon pumps we saw on the Loewe spring 2023 runway have spawned all kinds of shoes that look mops. Phoebe Philo did a pair I quite like in black. A.W.A.K.E. MODE has a pair that expose only the little toes and have mop fringe, as though they knew from the moment they were born their destiny was to be featured in this newsletter. And Burberry has some fringed shoes that manage to give both curtain and mop. I don’t like the Burberry ones, but otherwise I’m going to pledge my support for this impractical shoe.
Cowboy Boots
Owing to Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album release, I’ve been inundated with press releases and content about how Western fashion is so hot right now. Business of Fashion reported that Western wear was a huge trend before Cowboy Carter, thanks to Yellowstone, the Western looks in the Barbie movie, TikTok’s “coastal cowgirl” trend, and more. One press release I got recently claims “coquette cowgirl” is a TikTok trend. I’m not sure I’ve worked out the differences between a coastal cowgirl and a coquette one, but it all seems ensure that the cowboy boot trend will stick around (‘round ‘round ‘round ‘round) (sorry). You can get a designer pair from the likes of Prada or Khaite, something around half the price from Paris Texas, or a reasonably priced pair from small-batch brand Chalo. I’m from Texas, I’ll pledge support for this trend.
Skinny Sneakers
These are sneakers with a modest sole that aren’t all-white, perhaps retro, that you can’t use to assail the shins of your enemies. They’re a refreshing change of pace from the Triple S look and I’m already wearing them myself.
Heeled Fisherman Sandals
Again, this seems like a case of the fashion industry taking one of the most comfortable styles of shoe and making it needlessly uncomfortable in the name of earning a buck. Loewe makes a wedge version (Stella McCartney makes something similar for $400 less), or you can get a chunky platform kind from Sacai or Prada. Dolce Vita and Anthropologie are here with the knockoffs. I vote NO on these — just keep heels off my fishermans.
I’m torn about ballet sneakers. On one hand, the idea of adding arch support and shock absorption to ballet flats is a blessing for anyone actually planning to walk more than a few steps in them. Aesthetically, though, they are giving flashbacks to elementary school Christmas recitals.
Mesh flats were a thing in the 2010s, and they were cheap and gross then. I cannot imagine wearing them in a city, where city filth would permanently cling to the mesh, and make its way to one’s feet. No.