It was a couple of months ago that water cooler conversation at British Vogue first turned to a pair of Olsen-made flip-flops. Not due to any particularly novel design (though they do feature grosgrain straps and a lugged sole), nor the famous feet they’ve been spotted on (Jennifer Lawrence, Hailey Bieber, Dakota Johnson, Zoë Kravitz, Kendall Jenner), but because they were priced at £670.
The culture desk was baffled. The fashion desk, less so. Because while The Row’s Dune Classics are expensive – and, yes, arguably outrageous for an indistinct thong sandal you could pick up from Muji for a fistful of loose change – everything with a luxury label costs too much. And £670 is basically entry-level for The Row. The leather City flip-flops are £860; the suede Hugh sliders are £1,060; while the Hook-and-Loop sandal retails for £1,040.
But, ah: it’s the lifestyle you’re really buying into here. “Like all flip-flops, they are pool attire, good for walking a stretch of scorching sand,” wrote The New York Times at the peak of the discourse. “And yet the Row’s take… is in a class of its own – best suited, let’s imagine, for a stroll down the starboard side of a yacht.” Or, in Mary-Kate Olsen’s case, a grocery run in the Hamptons: sweatpants, sun-bleached tourist tee, dad cap, and brown paper bag clutched between clavicle and Amex. Much like the flip-flops themselves, it’s the ultimate in high-low dressing – which is, perhaps, the point.
