Long Live Ugly Shoes

Fashion has never been about being pretty—it’s about being interesting. From Crocs to Tabis, ugly shoes have become a symbol of rebellion, irony, and taste redefined. This is a love letter to the weird, the awkward, and the wonderfully wrong.

Maison Margiela’s Spring 2024 Ready-to-Wear, Look 16, captures Galliano’s deconstructivist poetics through a reworked split-toe tabi shoe—fusing ballet-inspired lace-up vamps, piped trims, and a chunky segmented sole. The footwear’s Mary Jane structure and perforated detailing echo both utility and delicate craftsmanship, grounding the silhouette in the house’s tradition of avant-garde ergonomics and subversive tailoring (Gorunway, 2023, Maison Margiela Spring 2024 Ready-to-Wear, Look 16, available via Vogue. © All rights belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement intended.

Fashion is one of the only creative fields where ugly gets rebranded into cool over and over again. The truth is beauty doesn’t always work here. Beautiful is safe. Expected. But to love fashion, you have to let go of the idea that it’s all about looking “good.” You have to unlearn everything you’ve been taught about taste. You have to open your mind enough to appreciate things that are weird, awkward, confusing, or even wrong. That’s what makes it fun and personal. That’s what makes it fashion. And that’s where ugly shoes come in.

Tabis, Crocs, Shox, and the Rebirth of Weird

Maison Margiela’s Tabi boots. The first time you saw a pair you probably thought they were horrible, I did too. And now? I want them. I dream about them.

They are the ultimate example of the fashion ugly-pretty ambivalence. The Tabi boot was first introduced by Martin Margiela in 1988 during his debut runway show in Paris. The design was inspired by the traditional Japanese tabi sock, which separates the big toe from the rest of the foot and is typically worn with geta sandals. Margiela transformed this functional design into a leather boot, and its unusual silhouette quickly became one of the most recognizable—and controversial—shoes in fashion.

Then there are Crocs, which have gone from gardening clogs to runway collectables, thanks to collabs with Balenciaga, MSCHF, and even Salehe Bembury. UGGs had their moment, faded, and came back stronger. Puma Speedcats are making a quiet comeback on Pinterest dashboards and Depop, while Nike Shox—originally created in the late ’80s as running shoes—suddenly feel like they belong in a Blokecore moodboard. Let’s not forget the Isabel Marant wedge sneakers. A fever dream of the early 2010s, they merged high fashion with gym shoes in the most confusing (and iconic) way. Add in Birkenstocks (a shoe my mom used to beg me not to wear outside the house) and you’ve got a solid line-up of what the world once called ugly—and what the fashion world now calls essential.

The Algorithm Made Me Do It

Part of this ugly shoe revolution is powered by TikTok. Algorithms have made aesthetics feel infinite and disposable all at once. Every month, we’re told to dress like something new: Clean Girl, Coquette, Indie Sleaze, Blokecore, Mob Wife, Balletcore… It’s overwhelming, but is it weird it also feels liberating? Because when everyone is everything all at once, the rules kind of stop mattering.

Sometimes you jump on a trend because it’s fun, it’s loud, it’s everywhere. And then, when it fades, you realize what parts of it stuck. What felt like “you,” and what didn’t. The fast cycle of trends forces us to try, to play, to discard, to rediscover. It’s performative at first, sure—but then it becomes real.

There’s this narrative that Gen Z doesn’t have taste, that we’re just copying whatever’s trending. But I think we’re doing something way more interesting: experimenting in public, remixing what we’re given, and ugly shoes are part of that.

Crocs with socks? Yes. UGGs in 30°C weather? Go for it. Adidas clogs to the club? Absolutely. Nike Shox with a miniskirt and lip gloss? Love it.

I love that we’re getting braver even if we needed social media to make it possible. Ugly shoes are freedom, so go forth and wear the weirdest pair you can find. Long live ugly shoes, ugly fashion, ugly everything.

Be ugly. It's hot.