The bizarre shoe design taken over runways is stunning the public and style experts alike. Photo / Getty Images
The bizarre shoe design taken over runways is stunning the public and style experts alike. Photo / Getty Images
First, there was the high-heeled thong. Now, designers are taking their foot fetish a step further with so-called big toe shoes.
From luxury label Celine to streetwear brand Y/Project, heels that expose limited toes are apparently growing in popularity, in toe-centric designs bound to confuse pedicurists everywhere.
But that doesn't mean they should ever be worn. Like, ever. Australian celebrity stylist Elliott Garnaut branded one-toed heels "foul" and added they were a "senseless fashion faux pas".
Influential website Refinery29 — which seemed to coin the term "big toe shoes" — noted that they were a huge trend this season but anyone caught wearing them was "asking for a double-take".
The footwear, according to the style site, "give your feet the effect of cloven hooves".
Only in Paris! Big toe shoes by Y/Project. Photo / Getty Images
The $1000-plus style has been done by Parisian brand Y/Project — previously known for selling a pair of $490 high-waisted denim undies — in its spring/summer '19 collection, as well as luxury label Celine (granted, with different toes on display), and are said to be an open-air take on Maison Margiela's Tabi boots.
High-end shopping site Stylebop described one-toed shoes as "modern and edgy with an open toe accent and a curved heel".
The brand is showing off the big toe. Photo / Getty Images
Calling them "edgy" is a polite way to put it.
Stylebop went on to say the Y/Project heels were "equal parts feminine cool and fashion-conscious", and advised to wear a particular floral-patterned pair with "bleached denim or with a high hemline".
It's a trend that probably should be avoided. Photo / Getty Images
However, Garnaut said big toe shoes should be avoided.
"I'm all for the diversification of trends on the runway, in fact I regularly embrace them," Garnaut told News Corp Australia.
"This however not only leaves me, but my pedicurist, baffled."
This isn't the only shoe design causing confusion. Last month, the high-heeled thong was branded the "ugliest" and most "controversial" shoe trend on the internet.
The bizarre sandal is being worn by Kim Kardashian, her supermodel sister Kendall Jenner, and even Australian style star Lara Worthington.
Kanye West's Yeezy line was charging more than $1280 a pair for perspex heeled "thong sandals", and they're also being done by luxury brand Gianvito Rossi ($850) and filtering down to copycats like Spanish chain store Zara.
West's line includes stiletto-heeled thongs and others with a wedge, while some of the cheaper versions feature a tiny kitten heel.
Vogue said the trend was this season's "most controversial sandal" in response to a pair that Jenner, the world's top-paid model, wore in Mykonos, also noting that Kardashian had been "sporting (thong heels) obsessively".
