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 .