Flip flops, otherwise reserved fo walks on the beach, or a swim by the pool, have seen a dramatic rise in sales in the past few months. Unmistakably, as a result of the ‘business on top, leisure at the bottom’ trend that has been adopted by one and all this year.
Online searches for flip-flops have expanded 53% since June, as per online style search business Lyst, with interest for Havaianas up 89% month-on-month.
Seeing as they can’t cover the horrors of unmanicured feet, with all the salons shut for business this season, they seem like an unlikely choice. In any case, then again they’re ideal for a world in which you don’t need to stress over your manager seeing your toes. As per Jesse Burnett, fellow benefactor of footwear brand Tkees: “With remote work more popular than ever, buying patterns no longer have to centre around office attire or what someone’s workplace might deem acceptable”.
The manner in which everybody dresses has been changing. Flip-flops are indicative of the new comfort that has assumed control over our closets – sweatpants are in and flips flops are their footwear equivalent.
“Today, consumers are buying what they want to wear, rather than what they have to wear,” says Burnett. In this unique circumstance, flip lemon, alongside other agreeable, “ugly” shoes, for example, Birkenstocks and Crocs, are progressing admirably.
Indeed, even in high-fashion and street style, a world which is extremely open to experimentations in styling, even at the cost of impracticality, influencers have caught on to the comfort train and are offering looks that combine oversized, forgiving dresses with flip flops. Net-a-Porter’s worldwide buying director Elizabeth von der Goltz refers to their street style second during Copenhagen design week, “where Scandinavian girls were spotted incorporating Havaianas into their outfits“, as one explanation they may now have their second in the sun.
The particular setting of 2020 aside, there are numerous things to suggest the beachy exemplary. It is an exquisitely concise form of footwear,” says Elizabeth Semmelhack, senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Canada. “It does a very effective job of protecting the foot with a minimal amount of material.”
The simple skeleton of the flip flop can be worked on to come up with vastly different designs, be it bright tropical prints that call on summer, or the luxurious leather and suede platforms that proved to be one of Net-a-Porter’s most popular styles- which you could buy at a whopping £725 if they weren’t already sold out.
In 2020, the flip-flop is expanding its territory: originally ideal for staycations, gardening and grocery runs, they have found themselves on the feet of many more in this work-from-home culture, be it for board meetings or other discussions.
SOUCE: Refinery29
