Sometime in the last two years, fashion commentator Mandy Lee (@oldloserinbrooklyn) coined the phrase “freaky little shoes.” Cutouts, split toes, inverted heels, pony hair are some details that make up this trend. All freaky shoes have a fetishy or animalistic quality to them. The term has since become shorthand for a very specific cultural conversation around footwear; one that prizes strangeness, and is, by design, slightly unpleasant. But the freaky shoe didn’t come out of nowhere. It is the logical progression of a decade-long shift in how we think about what goes on our feet. To understand it, you have to dial back the clock to the 2010s.

Comfort as a Cultural Shift

The days when fashion meant sacrificing comfort are long gone. Since the 1990s, there has been a steady and gradual move toward casual dressing, which was further accelerated by the pandemic. The wellness-driven lifestyle of Millennials and Gen Z steered them away from uncomfortable heels and dress shoes, embracing sneakers as their footwear of choice. We became accustomed to sportswear and loungewear outside of the gym and home—at the office, at restaurants, everywhere. Once dismissed as unfashionable and purely functional, the rise of comfort-based footwear signifies a broader cultural shift.

Riding this wave of casual influence, Balenciaga released the Triple S sneakers in 2017, marking the ultimate form of the “ugly dad shoe.” Fashion mirrored societal change. According to The Business Journal, hybrid work and casual dress codes are the biggest shifts in workplace culture during this period. Industries like banking, law, and consulting are among the few that have maintained a traditional suit-and-tie dress code.

The Ugly Mom Shoe

The “ugly dad shoe” trend of the 2010s set the grounds for the hybrid footwear we see today. As sneakers became a normal offering from the luxury market, we saw a spike in fashion x athletic brand collaborations: Asics x Kiko Kostadinov, Nike with Comme Des Garçons, and more. As a natural progression, lifestyle shoe brands that focused on comfort started tapping into the fashion industry too. Crocs worked with Simone Rocha, Clarks with Martine Rose, Puma with Rombaut, and recently Versace with Onitsuka Tiger to name a few examples.

This directs the focus to what I’d like to call the “ugly mom shoe”—a new wave of footwear with dressier silhouettes. Athletic shoes have taken on the shape of loafers, ballet flats, clogs, and even heels, toeing the line between formality and sportiness. This was something only done by brands like Geox, Naturalizer, and Z-Coil, that focus on orthopedic designs. You would typically associate these with what mothers would wear to work (and to be honest, never considered stylish).

The New Balance 1906L became one of the defining objects of this moment because it had no clear occasion. You could wear it to work or to the bodega and neither would be wrong. Mats Rombaut, the founder of a sustainable footwear brand Rombaut, had seen this change coming.

“Timing and the brand’s reputation are crucial for launching new designs. We introduced a sneaker-loafer hybrid years ago, but it didn’t gain traction until New Balance released their version. Now, we’re revisiting that concept, as the market has shifted to embrace more practical, comfort-oriented designs.”—Mats Rombaut, founder of Rombaut

Today, brands like Camper, Clarks, and Rombaut continue to blur the line between professional and personal spaces. Sneakers that fuse ballet flats and loafers are prominent on runways and storefronts, introducing “dated” footwear silhouettes into a new context.

Fashion often progresses and develops by subverting unconventional and “ugly” things. In Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag, she wrote that camp taste “turns its back on the good-bad axis of ordinary aesthetic judgment. It doesn’t argue that the good is bad, or the bad is good. What it does is to offer for art and life a different—a supplementary—set of standards.” The freaky shoe operates exactly this way. It doesn’t claim that ugly is beautiful but rather refuses the beauty standard. And as Sontag put it, “the connoisseur of camp sniffs the stink and prides herself on her strong nerves.” Wearing a shoe that unsettles people is the whole point. It’s a way of distinguishing your taste from the masses.

The Freaky Shoe

Once ugliness was made acceptable, or going even further, desirable, shoes had nowhere left to go but weirder. You cannot have this conversation without talking about the Margiela Tabi, a split-toed boot introduced by Martin Margiela in 1988 as part of their Spring/Summer 1989 collection. The silhouette was borrowed from the Japanese Jika-tabi, a staple of traditional workwear boots that separated the big toe for better grip. Models left hoof-like footprints as they walked down the runway, unsettlingly recasting the foot as a focal body part. The shoe had spent decades as a polarizing avant-garde object, and as a signifier of who was truly into fashion. Now, you’ll find dupes of the silhouette at brands like Steve Madden. We could get into the conversation about knockoff culture but this is a conversation about normalization. When fashion’s most repulsive shoe becomes a mass-market reference point, the bar for what counts as transgressive has moved significantly.

AVAVAV, a fashion brand known for its provocative takes, came out with the four-toed Finger boots as one of their signature offerings in 2022. Vibram’s Five Fingers, the toe-separated athletic shoe that spent most of its existence being mocked, started gaining popularity in 2025. Paris-based Coperni introduced the 5T ballerinas on its Fall/Winter 2025 runway. In a subtler expression of the same impulse, Christian Louboutin introduced the Miss Zs for Zendaya, a longtime fan of the brand’s Kate pumps—named, of course, after Kate Moss. The Miss Zs are the first shoe to have padded insoles and rubberized red outsoles instead of the signature lacquered sole. For a brand that has treated feminine beauty as sacred doctrine since its founding, these changes are practically a reformation. The experimentation with orthopedic features has become a given in footwear.

And much like the Margiela Tabi, the freaky shoe has become an insider signal of acquired taste. It assumes you know the context behind brands like AVAVAV, or why one would choose to wear “ugly” shoes on purpose. Rombaut described it well:

“It’s about finding your people and creating a world that resonates with like-minded individuals. There’s beauty in unconventional designs, and they connect us through shared values.”—Mats Rombaut

Where It Goes

Looking ahead, we can predict comfort footwear will further merge with fashion and technology, even tapping into recovery footwear, sports-specific silhouettes, and barefoot shoes. The most recent viral example is Dsquared2's ski boot heels shown on its Fall/Winter 2026 runway. We can assume innovations like 3D-printed shoes will make it onto runways and the toes of fashion’s most influential people. Zellerfeld has already started to experiment with these technologies, making orthopedic design the conceptual engine to create atypical silhouettes.

Though the freaky shoe might seem like a trend right now, this feels like a direction athletic, lifestyle, and fashion brands alike will continue to take. The “ugly dad shoe” normalized bold, athletic designs in any setting and the freaky shoe is about taking that idea beyond normality, making us rethink the object itself: how we dress as a society and what it says about the person wearing it.

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As many who grew up in the 2000s know, our youth was blessed with some of the greatest chick flicks of our generation, including Devil Wears Prada. While most of these so-called chick flicks were romcoms, DWP focused on career rather than love. And that was “groundbreaking” to me. So when it was announced that a sequel was in the works, I was excited for the release and curious for what it would bring to the table.

“The original 2006 film holds so much cultural value with its quotable moments — “Gird your loins” — to Andy’s archival Chanel looks. The film’s costume was spearheaded by Patricia Field, who also created the era-defining wardrobe of Sex and the City. Field stretched a $100,000 budget into a $1 million wardrobe, calling in industry favors to fill the film with archival designer pieces. Andy’s evolution from lumpy cerulean sweaters to full fashion indoctrination alone is a masterclass in costume as character development. For the sequel, the baton passes to Molly Rogers, Field’s longtime collaborator.

Part of the reason why the movie is so beloved is because it’s a realistic yet palatable portrayal of the glamorous yet toxic fashion industry. The original novel was written by Lauren Weisberger, based on her time working as Anna Wintour’s assistant. The fact that it had real-life counterparts to the main characters, coupled with the entertaining plot and impeccable costuming, made this movie a major hit.

One of the most memorable lines from the film comes from when the Runway staff is in a planning meeting for the upcoming spring issue and someone suggests a floral themed editorial. Miranda Priestly backhandedly mutters, “Florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” This stuck with me in my career, always being wary of producing seasonally clichéd editorials. But a cliché is a cliché for a reason. It is because there is a demand for it. So I am throwing my hat in the ring with some suggestions on actually groundbreaking options. Because when the weather warms up, there’s nothing better than prancing around in the sun wearing flowers.

1. Prada Spring/summer 2008 ‘Fairy’ Collection Flower Mules

Price: $275

I love every collection that Prada releases, but the ‘Fairy’ collection is definitely high up on my list of favorites. Miuccia Prada has a way of playing with self-reference, and for spring 2008, she went against her usual grain of muted sweaters and tailored trousers and opted for an ethereal approach to her designs. Illustrative floral patterns and sculptural footwear filled the catwalk. This particular shoe is not a runway piece but still has all the elements of the collection — the leather petals and flower heel. It’s at a great price and a collector’s piece for sure.

2. Stussy Motion Flower Tie

Price: $70

Stussy’s accessory offerings are worth checking in on. You’ll find pieces that aren’t their typical beat. Adding a tie is an easy way to add interest to an otherwise boring shirt and pants combo. This bright orange floral tie-dye pattern breaks away from the normal formality of wearing a tie.

3. Erdem Mini Bloom Bag

Price: $2,795

Erdem is one of those brands that have been quietly building their own universe for the past two decades. And when it comes to florals, no one is more committed than Erdem. The Bloom bag was introduced a few seasons ago, a key feature being the single stem brass flower handle. This electric lime is my favorite colorway because of the tonal embroidery. As someone who interned here during my college years and has seen the craftsmanship that goes into its designs firsthand, I can vouch for the quality of their products.

4. TNF x Cecilie Bahnsen Bekah Sandals

Price: $290

The North Face x Cecilie Bahnsen line has been one of my favorite collaborations in recent years because it’s one that no one would have expected. I have the hiking boots from the first collection and they got me through New York’s treacherous weather this past winter. Now there’s a sandal version and naturally, it’s on my wishlist.

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When I was twelve, I watched the documentary Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton (2007) directed by Loïc Prigent. (It’s free to watch on TUBI!!!) It was broadcast on EBS, South Korea’s version of PBS. I had finished all my homework and was waiting for my parents to come home from work for dinner. My mother came home around when the documentary was coming to an end and described me being completely and utterly awestruck staring at the TV. My memory of this exact moment is blurry but one thing I remember crystal clear is that after watching that documentary, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my life.

I’ve been in fashion for over a decade now. So sitting in a dark theater watching Marc by Sofia felt like a full-circle moment. A gift to twelve-year-old me who daydreamed about the work I do now. Here are my five takeaways from Marc by Sofia.

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His tenure at Dior is widely considered an act of pure genius: theatrical, parsed with historical references, and romantically excessive in the best possible way. He disgracefully exited the French house in 2011 after antisemitic remarks surfaced. Maison Margiela gave him a second chance in 2014, and he proved his genius once again, remaining with the brand for a decade before leaving at the end of 2024. Nobody predicted this would be his next move. And it made me think about Barnes & Noble.

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When I was twelve, I used to think about why clothing came first. Food keeps you alive. A roof keeps you safe. But clothes felt like something else entirely. They had expression, art, and identity. Of the three, they were the only ones that asked a question: who are you? I didn’t yet understand the difference between “fashion” and “clothes” — and later realized what I was thinking about was in fact Fashion with a capital F, but that’s a story for another day. I knew I wanted to find out why clothes were so important to people, and especially to me.

That feeling carried me through a decade of chasing it. Fashion school, internships, years at magazines — the sleepless nights before deadlines, sprinting across the city for a single pair of socks needed on set, suitcases perpetually half-packed, emails answered at midnight by someone equally awake on the other end. The fashion industry is built on the love people have for it, and it knows this. We give freely because it never feels entirely like work. Until, eventually, it does.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I noticed how rarely fashion gets talked about the way it actually feels to love it. The conversation is either a sales pitch dressed up as editorial, or a critique of a designer or trend (with an unshakable snobbiness to it). Both have their place. But neither is really about the experience of it. And as someone who has admired this industry since childhood, that was what interested me most. The thrill of a silhouette that stops you in your tracks. The way certain clothes make you feel like a different version of yourself, or finally, exactly yourself. The fun of it. That part tends to get lost.

I’m calling this newsletter the mepci, derived from the Korean word 맵시 (maebsi), which roughly translates to stylish, or fashionable. It’s one of those words that resists a clean translation into English. It carries a sense of grace, of intention, of someone who understands how to carry themselves. That felt like the right word for what I want this to be: considered, but not stiff; personal, but not indulgent; and most importantly, a little Korean.

This is my attempt to find the fun in fashion again — and to share it. A space for fashion writing that is honest, curious, and a little obsessed. For people who have always felt that eui deserved to come first.

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Yours truly,

Shinnie