Latest news with #PescuraScholl
The Star
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Era of the Frankenshoes: Why are hybrid footwear becoming so fashionable?
Take note of the split toe of these tabi sneakers. Photo: Maison Margiela When are sneakers not sneakers? When they take the form of sneakerinas instead. It is currently a trend right now for footwear not to be of a single category, but a fusion of different styles. Take the sneakerina, for example. This is simply a sneaker combined with a ballerina flat – hence the namesake portmanteau. In terms of functionality, it is a blend of a casual, comfortable design with a touch of feminine flair. Model Bella Hadid is believed to be a big fan of sneakerinas. She has been spotted out and about wearing them as part of various looks – effortlessly combining comfort and high fashion with each appearance. Sneakerinas offer the cool vibe of streetwear, while giving you a feminine appeal. Photo: Vivaia The trend itself is named 'Frankenshoes', alluding to Frankenstein's monster (from the Mary Shelley novel), as these hybrid pieces are often cobbled together from mismatched materials, styles and influences, creating a unique and sometimes eccentric look. Read more: Big pants, bold statements: Does fashion turn to drama in uncertain times? Just recently, Balenciaga launched a collaborative collection of unconventional footwear. There is one design that combines the buckle and front strap found on the classic Pescura Scholl sandal with a cork sole and a high heel. The Scholl clogs, often worn by nurses and cleaners, have also been reimagined as a trendy mesh slip-on. Last year, New Balance merged sneakers and loafers into snoafers. The design sparked plenty of buzz, though it might not appeal to everyone's taste. While each release sells out quickly, some people are saying that snoafers just don't look aesthetically pleasing. And that is perhaps the crux of the issue here. Frankenshoes are supposed to make you uncomfortable – in how they challenge your expectations of what footwear should look like. Like how Hadid helped popularise sneakerinas, other celebrities have played a significant role in propelling the Frankenshoe trend into the mainstream. Style icons like Dua Lipa and Kendall Jenner have been spotted wearing these daring hybrids, often turning heads with their bold and unconventional footwear choices. By showcasing these pieces at high-profile events and on social media, they amplify their visibility and transform what might otherwise be niche fashion experiments into covetable, statement-making items. In 2023, MSCHF's big red boots went viral. The cartoonish design made waves across social media platforms. Also don't forget the Crocs heels that divided opinions seven years ago. Despite all the ridicule received at that time, the brand continued to push out unique designs: hiking clogs, pool slides, platform shoes and more. Read more: Flaunt them, pair them with sandals: How to pull off white socks fashionably The Maison Margiela Tabi sneakers have also been a favourite for quite some time now. There have been numerous iterations of this design, but all with the hallmark split toe design. Making its debut in 1988, Maison Margiela's Tabi footwear is a cult favourite. The design is inspired by traditional Japanese socks characterised by having a separate compartment for the big toe. Since then, the fashion brand has introduced an ever-increasing number of Tabi variations from ballet flats to mary-janes to loafers and brogues. Which really shows that Frankenshoes are here to stay. Love them or loathe them, such designs can act to push boundaries – one bizarre, boundary-blurring step at a time.
The Guardian
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Balenciaga and orthopaedic brand Scholl team up for ‘Frankenshoe' hybrid
With Birkenstocks and Crocs now ubiquitous, fashion's so-called ugly shoe trend was in danger of losing its shock factor. So the arrival of Balenciaga's collaboration with the orthopaedic brand Scholl couldn't have come a moment too soon. The collection, which launched this week, includes a 'Frankenshoe' style that combines the buckle and front strap found on the classic Pescura Scholl sandal with a cork sole and a spindly high heel. It is priced at £625. The collection also includes a £525 white clog mule, which resembles the Scholl designs often worn by nurses and cleaners, and a pool slider with logo for £315. Balenciaga's collaboration is confirmation that Scholl is the latest sensible shoe to gain its moment in the fashion spotlight. Celebrities including Lily-Rose Depp and Sarah Jessica Parker are wearing the shoes and Scholl report that sales this year are up, with those in the 29 to 45-year-old age group buying the designs with a higher price point. The Cameron – a heeled version of the Pescura – is now the most popular style, retailing at £200. Emma Davidson, the fashion director of Dazed, has a pair of the Balenciaga heeled Scholls. She says the appeal is 'the weird contrast … an old maid type of shoe with the addition of that spindly heel'. Davidson is a fan of ugly shoes in general. 'Even though I am a bit scruffy, I always like to feel a bit glam,' she says. 'The shoes contrast with what I wear and I think it adds an edge.' The Scholl Manufacturing Company was founded in 1906 by the American podiatrist Dr William Scholl. The current US-based company Dr Scholl's now largely sells comfort-first trainers, the brand's UK focus is on footcare products and Scholl, which sells the Pescura and collaborated with Balenciaga, is based in Italy. The Pescura was first released in 1956 and Audrey Hepburn, Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton wore the shoes. They became popular in the 70s, when they were known as the 'exercise sandal', owing to benefits such as improving posture and muscle tone. Rebecca Shawcross, a senior curator at Northampton's Shoe Museum, remembers people wearing them because they were 'doing you some good. It's the idea that they were outdoorsy, carefree … In some respects, Scholl were quite ahead of their time.' If the clog mule is most associated with Scholl, it has also been taken up by other brands. Ancient Greek Sandals have a version for summer, and they were on the catwalk at Miu Miu's runway show. The Balenciaga collaboration is not the first, either – the brand also worked with Ganni and the DJ and designer Honey Dijon in 2022. Yves Guy Coulter, Scholl's chief brand officer, says the brand is taking advantage of newer footwear fashion. 'Scholl's resurgence is definitely part of a wider trend toward comfort-driven footwear. More and more people – especially younger consumers – are rejecting the idea that fashion has to come at the expense of comfort.' However, describing the Pescura as a healthy choice is not entirely straightforward, says Dr Helen Branthwaite, the chief clinical adviser for the Royal College of Podiatry. 'The wooden sole can help but that is counterbalanced by an open slip-on design,' she says. 'This style provides no support for the foot and makes the foot work harder.' They are, of course, preferable to long-term wear of pointed toe high heels – a shape that Shawcross says has dominated 'the last 400 or 500 years'. The curator says Scholls may be the latest in a line of shoes that take a bit of time to become accustomed to. 'So many people now wear Crocs,' she says. 'But at one point there was a bit of: 'Oh no. Why would you wear those?''
