Toe the Line

Vibram FiveFingers, fashion's new favourite shoes, have young people wearing gloves on their feet

- Carmen Sin

The shoe of the summer has so far been designated "chaotic evil" by meme pages, "world's ugliest" by British GQ magazine, and "outright freaky".

Vibram FiveFingers, the glove-like sports shoe with a slot for each toe, is the suspect. The style has, in the last year, given the slip to its usual audience of barefoot runners and dotty uncles to breach the ranks of fashion's "it" girls.

In August, global shopping platform Lyst — whose quarterly index is closely watched by the fashion industry — named the contentious shoe fifth on its list of top 10 products bought and searched for online.

Its raw anatomical weirdness marks the climax of ugliness as virtue, a cultural swing still befuddling to the mainstream.

Local Vibram fan Kylie Low, 26, is accustomed to strangers pointing and whispering. "It's amusing," she says.

The public relations manager used to run, but did not dare hazard a pair of the toe-spreaders herself until June, two decades after its 2006 launch.

She says: "I've known about the shoes for 15 years, but back then, people would sh** on you if you wore them. They are just incredibly ugly."

Then the Italian brand's pilates shoe, the balletic V-Soul model (US$120 or S$154) changed her mind. Daintier than its full-coverage forebears, the airy style was first seen on big-city micro-influencers, then American rapper Doechii and K-pop group Blackpink's Jennie.

Its polyester belly is lopped off to expose all but the tips and tail of the foot. Two ribbon-thin straps go across the middle. Ms Low calls them pretty.

Liberation of the lower digits seems to be the theme of a season uncommonly heavy on footwear. Vibram's toe mittens are one of six shoes that cracked Lyst's top 10 most coveted product list for the second quarter of 2025.

Also hot are American "quiet luxury" brand The Row's US$690 flip-flops, thin-soled Miu Miu and Prada shoes, for that close-to-ground feeling, and semi-clear jelly flats.