«NWhat is beautiful is beautiful, what you like is beautiful ». The saying resounds more than ever in the spring-summer 2025 season, which greets the return from the so -called Ugly Shoes –– Old and new glories from foot often characterized by disharmonious, exaggerated, at times “monstrous” shapes, far from the classic concept of elegance.
Not just sneakers. Today the “ugly” shoes but Cool explore any dissonant form. Minimum common denominator: get noticed, as rumors out of the choir. From the network dancers reminiscent of the slide shoes to the flops in technical fabric, from heel soccer shoes to plastic platform sandals, to Mary Jane with fingers and sock boots: Diversity, in all its forms, wins.
Are the Ugly Shoes chic?
While The Ugly Chic pioneer, Miuccia Pradadusts off the concept that contributed first to create with the collection Banal eccentricity Of the spring-summer 1996 in new, “speech” wears the autumn-winter fashion shows 2025/2026, launches for the current season a shoe that is difficult to define: flip flops or dancer, sneakers or rock shoe? What is certain is that the Gymnasium In Miu Miu technical fabric is among the most trendy Ugly Shoes of the season.
Meanwhile, the iconic German brand Birkenstock jumps to the chronicles and claims the status of works of art for its models unique, to be protected and protected. Other than uncool: the Ugly sandals par excellence, from the legendary Arizona to the Boston up to the new ones Super Birki 2.0According to the lawyers of the brand, they deserve legal protection similar to that guaranteed to artistic creations with an indisputable aesthetic value.
Bad vs beautiful, a relative concept. At foot
Is the “ugliness” protected, like beauty? Of course, pay – often even more. Just think of the unstoppable success of the Ugly Sneakers of Balenciagastarted with the Triple s from the abnormal sole in 2017, which continues today with a parterre of models on the lines of the first with dissonant names, from 3 to 10xl.
The Ugly Sneakers “10XL” of Balenciaga.
The Shoe Addict will not have been able to do without inserting a couple of in their Wishlist Net or mesh shoeswho veil the foot showing enamel and pedicure (although not exactly perfect). And what about the Calzino bootsthat thanks to Bottega Veneta they become much more than a shoe of the Sunday? The SOCK Effect Shoe in Lana Mélange shirt is among the most copied (just think of the models, equally Ugly and equally cool, of the New York brand Brave Pudding).
The Ugly Shoe par excellence? The legendary Vibram Fivefingerswith the shape of the exposed fingersreal glove from foot that since 2002 has conquered the deductors of glamor and followers of comfort. It is not surprising that the most fashionable brands have offered trendy interpretations completely personal, like the Five-toe Coperno dancer.
The “Five-tae” Mary Jane of Coperni spring-summer 2025 (Photo: Spotlight Launchmetrics).
Bad taste, the last status symbol
How do you explain all this? To put it in the words of Miuccia Prada, the maximum fashion expert “Ugly”, «the ugly is attractivethe ugly is exciting. Maybe because it is newer. For me, the search for the ugly is more interesting than the bourgeois idea of beauty. And why? Because the ugly is human ». His words date back to an interview from 2013but considering the prevailing return of the trend they resonate more current than ever.
A charm to which it is difficult to resist, the one for the “ugly”. Which mainly hides a natural inclination for what is original, different, and for this notable. The perfection sooner or later stoves? Be careful, why Times have changed. Even bad taste, today, is now a status symbol …
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