The Trend for Ugly Footwear…where are the fashion police?

Let’s face it, when the Ugg was first printed in a magazine no one was jumping up and down at the sight of them. The only kudos was they were emerging on the festival scene upon the likes of Kate Moss’ feet. That was enough it seemed to propel the sheepskin-lined suede boot into becoming the ‘must-have’ footwear. It soon dominated every celebrity’s wardrobe and descended through the high-street stores with their take on the Australian boot. It needn’t have mattered that the boot wore like an ill-fitting sock, was highly unattractive to the opposite sex and the heel support broke within 100 strides on the shop door. £180 well spent, eh?

Then along came the Croc. A shoe which could be considered cute upon the feet of toddlers, but grown women? Tim Gunn, fashion consultant, told Time Magazine, “…the Croc – it looks like a plastic hoot. How can you take that seriously?” A Facebook fan page titled “I don’t care how comfortable Crocs are, you look like a dumbass” accrued over 1.5 million “likers” as of June 2010. Back in 2007 when they first emerged, celebrities such as Brook Shields and Nicole Appleton jumped on the bandwagon whilst the Style section of every magazine was in uproar. President Bush made himself unpopular with fashion journalists in 2007 when he emerged wearing matching shirt, shorts, socks and Crocs, “…there’s one thing we can all agree on when it comes to President Bush: he is not a fashionable man.” Stylelist goes on to declare Crocs as “the ugliest pieces of footwear on the planet”. According to Manolo Blahnik – the Internet’s foremost shoe blogger – “this is ground for impeachment”. Whilst the Croc was hailed as comfortable, and perhaps the reason so many celebrities endorsed it, it still came under scrutiny when a toddler was injured on an escalator due to the soft rubber upper getting caught. A safety hazard and ugly, really not much going for them!

But fear, the next edition of hideous footwear has arrived: The Wörishofer. A shoe designed based on function over aesthetic, claiming to improve comfort for bunion-sufferers. Now there’s a real hook, it may ease pain but everyone will know you have bunions! You may as well have a stamp on your forehead declaring it! Miraculously, a German podiatrist has developed a cult following of celebrities and style-stalkers. Photographed wearing the new "it" shoe is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal and outspoken rapper Mia. These are two rather unlikely candidates considering The Wörishofer as only ever seen on shuffling grandmothers complaining of back pain since its advent almost 70 years ago. They have become popular on the streets of Brooklyn, and as the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell identifies, breaking into a community like this can impact the majority into thinking this is a brilliant new trend. Just think back to the Hush Puppies revival...hmm...

The fashion industry’s turn to “ugly shoes” has been explained by Harriet Quick, fashion features editor at Vogue, "It's a combination of two things, the current taste for previously geeky styles, like Clark's and chunky brogues, and the vaguely orthopaedic styles channelled on the catwalks right now. They're an active antidote to the fierce sky-high heels we've seen, and they're grounded in functionality; girls are fed up of crippling themselves."

It seems, however, to be from one extreme to the other. Surely there must be some medium ground on which we can compromise the ugliness for a little sexiness (even if there is a little pinch)?