How the fashion industry fell out of love with heels

The only thing you need to know about London Fashion Week this season? Don’t look up. It’s not a common refrain among the fashion set, particularly given the average height of most models. But if you want to understand anything about the biggest trends for spring/summer 2024, it’s one of the most vital instructions.

Shoes, you see, notoriously overlooked at London Fashion Week, are having a moment. Or, to be more precise, a reckoning. Because gone are the days of squashing your toes into pointed stilettos that wobble on the pavement, or literally dragging your heels in a pair of sky-high platforms that might as well be a pair of dumbbells. Today, a fashionable foot is one that stays flat. In fact, the lower to the ground your soles, the higher up your name is likely to be on the masthead of a glossy magazine.

Flat feet have, ironically, become a sign of status both off and on the runway. Where the latter is concerned, we’ve seen an array of ballet flats, backless loafers, and strappy sandals, all without almost a single heel in sight. Consider 16Arlington, whose standout shoes of the season were not the Mary Janes that stomped down the runway underneath boxy blazers, but rather, the flat, pointed shoes covered in layers of circular cut-outs that featured graphics from a Japanese book about the filmmaker David Lynch, which partly inspired the collection. Like any good statement shoe, they herald their own arrival: you hear them before you see them.

We saw something similar over at Molly Goddard, where strappy ballet pumps reigned supreme in the Londoner’s underwear-inspired show. “I always like there to be a sporty element to the collection because that is the way I wear things,” the designer told British Vogue. “We have taken the detail of trainers and taken them to ballet pumps, with trainer detailing on the leather and criss-cross laces across the front.”

Ashley Williams also made a triumphant return to the runway this season with a medieval-inspired collection that featured single-strap ballet pumps in pink and black alongside a series of Uggs, which had partnered with the designer for the season. Flats also ruled the roost over at cult editor-favourite, TOVE, in the form of pointed slouchy loafers as well as at JW Anderson, who offered a wearable spin on gladiator sandals.

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Even at Susan Fang, whose innovative and sustainable brand is predicated on frothy frocks and girlish smocks, brazen femininity was offset by a series of flat strappy sandals complete with floral appliques and paired with calf-high sports socks.

It was off the runway, though, where flats really stole the show. There were between three and five pairs of the uber-popular Dear Frances mesh ballet pumps tucked underneath the benches on either side of almost every catwalk – model Adwoa Aboah is a big fan – while editors kept their feet happy in an array of printed and plain Pretty Ballerinas, much like the pointed red strapped ones Sienna Miller wore at Vogue World.

In more avant-garde choices among the street style set, we saw damanté backless loafers paired with black tailored trousers and, in some cases, wooden wide-strapped sandals to show off your perfect pedicure (a power move, naturally).

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But perhaps the primary flat of the season is one that has already received a significant amount of attention. If you didn’t know about the Maison Margiela Tabis before, you will definitely have heard of them by now thanks to a viral TikTok story in which one woman recounted how her own pair of the cult shoes were stolen by a Tinder date – they were ultimately returned to her, thanks to the help of some serious internet sleuthing.

These split-toe pumps are inspired by the traditional 15th-century Japanese sock bearing the same name. Despite having been around since 1989, they have surged in popularity in recent years, earning themselves the top spot in lists of highly sought-after fashion items among those in the know. This season, they were everywhere, whether it was peeping out from underneath wide-leg jeans or sitting comfortably underneath a bare leg moving freely underneath a flouncy skirt or dress.

All this is a marked change from seasons gone by. There was a time when you couldn’t attend a single show without seeing an array of dangerously high-flatform heels, trainers and sandals. Now they’re fleetingly rare sightings, as the fashion crowd is prioritising comfort more than ever. It’s an interesting pivot in the wake of the Barbie film, which famously took a stab at high heels, presenting them as a symbol of patriarchal adherence. When Barbie starts to become “real”, as a result of a glitch in the Barbie Land vs Real World algorithm, her naturally arched feet suddenly thump flat onto the ground.

Perhaps this change is a sign that fashion, too, is becoming more real. Then again, the starting price for a pair of Tabis is £600. So perhaps not.