Distaste for Crocs once seemed like the absolute bottom threshold for sartorial taste. Now, the iconic mid-aughts children’s shoe has been adopted by the elitist world of high fashion. British designer Christopher Kane prominently featured his take on the rubber shoe in his SS18 collection, a decision that was met by general praise by critics, and absolute horror by me.
If I could squelch one trend it would be high fashion Crocs. On the list of things the world needs, crystal encrusted Crocs round out the bottom. I would prefer to live in a world where the term “luxurious Crocs” remains exclusively oxymoronic. Prior to today, I thought just about everyone would want to stay in that relative-utopia, except for, maybe, Mario Batali.
Kane’s Crocs are neither innovative, nor clever, and frankly extremely ugly. Being fashionable does not necessitate looking good (nor should it), but this is ridiculous and also slightly bothersome. I find it generally distasteful when the fashion world appropriates, and marks-up, working-class items. Like the Moschino SS16 collection, which was inspired by “tradesmen” and featured this take on high-vis workwear as well as the use of a traffic cone as a purse, which was sold for $1,195.
It’s unclear how much Kane will sell his new Croc designs for. But if they’re priced similarly to previous Croc collaborations (yes, that’s right, this collection is not the designer’s first dalliance with the the Croc brand), they’re likely to be quite expensive. Currently there is a pair of “slip-on Crocs clogs” being sold on the Christopher Kane website for $545.
For that price, you could buy 20 actual Crocs, 180 jibbitz, or something that isn’t trash.
While Kane may have been the first major designer to collaborate with Crocs, he was not the last. Only two weeks after Kane sent his latest Croc-collab down the runway, Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga unveiled a pair of his own. It’s honestly hard to say which collaboration is worse, but I would give it to Balenciaga. The iconic French fashion house barely adapted the classic design at all, simply slapped on a platform.