Месяц: Август 2020

When Allie Goertz encountered Crocs for the first time as a dorky, Wayne’s World-obsessed 13-year old, she instantly despised their bulbous, stippled silhouette. “I remember thinking, ‘They’re so ugly, never in a million years would I wear Crocs,’» she says. Eighteen years later, the musician and writer was self-quarantining at home in Los Angeles due to COVID-19 and found herself unexpectedly drawn to a vivid turquoise pair.

Goertz characterizes her new Crocs are the quintessential pandemic purchase: an irrational impulse buy she likely never would have considered had the world not turned completely upside down. “They’ve become my quarantine shoes,” she says. After trying them on with a pair of & Other Stories socks, she snapped a pic and tweeted it out with the caption, “We all deal with depression differently #Crocs.”

David SilvermanGetty Images

Once the sole province of nurses, toddlers, and a certain celebrity chef, Crocs have joined the growing pantheon of hideous footwear (see Birkenstocks and Tevas) that has undergone significant image rehabilitation. It can be traced back to 2016, when designer Christopher Kane debuted a marbleized version replete with crystal geode jibbitz at London Fashion Week. He followed them up with diamanté and high top versions. Not long thereafter, Balenciaga created a 10-inch platform version of the brand’s classic clogs for their S/S 2018 show, which retailed for $850. (Currently, Crocs sells a more subdued iteration called the Classic Bae Clog for $54.99.)

EstropGetty Images

Victor VIRGILEGetty Images

In the past year, celebrities have been increasingly paparazzi’d in the shoes. They have become a staple of Justin Bieber‘s now prescient ‘dirtcore’ aesthetic. And last fall, the brand tapped Priyanka Chopra as a 2020 global brand ambassador and star of its ‘Come As You Are’ campaign. Meanwhile, the footwear giant has embarked on successful (and sold-out) collaborations with the likes of Madewell and Liberty London. But despite fashion and fame’s embrace of the chunky, duck-footed look, it took a global pandemic for Crocs to fully cross the Rubicon from a much-reviled symbol of slovenliness to a culturally-relevant accessory.

“I completely lost the plot of what normal outfits are,” says Lauren Mitchell, an account manager from Toronto, Canada. Global fashion search platform Lyst noted that searches for Crocs have been steadily increasing since the second week of March and searches are currently up 71% over the last 3 months. In April and May, the brand doubled their monthly e-commerce sales year over year. “At this very moment, our brand momentum has never been stronger,” says Heidi Cooley, head of global marketing at Crocs.

“These are Crocs times we’re living in now, for sure,” says Kelly McClure, a writer and publicist from New Orleans, who purchased Crocs two weeks into the pandemic to replace a pair of green flip flops she wore around the house. “Had the pandemic never happened, I doubt I would have bought them, because I’d still be out and about, going to bars and shows and shops,” says McClure.

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Nanea Woods, founder of Portland’s Prose Before Bros book club, refers to her sleek white Crocs as the “ultimate quarantine house slippahs.” She bought her Crocs a month into the pandemic because she was looking for a versatile, slip-on shoe she could wear both indoors and outdoors. Though she primarily bought the Crocs for their function, Woods adds that the way they look is “a huge plus.” Tat Read, a communications executive from Toronto also purchased Crocs to serve as house slippers, but two days after the banana-printed slides arrived, she decided they were cute enough to wear outside the confines of her home. “They clash with everything and that’s really the look I’m going for,” she says.

Danielle Johnson, a data engineer from Oakland, Calif., has owned Crocs since 2016, but when the pandemic hit, she went Croc wild, acquiring three more pairs. “I have indoor Crocs, outdoor Crocs,” plus an extra pair to replace the ones her partner jacked from her closet. “I actually wore them on a hike by accident because I’m so used to putting them on,” she says.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Of the litany of reasons Crocs are the ultimate pandemic shoe—their squishy comfort and relative affordability—perhaps the most compelling reason is that they’re easy to clean. “If I accidentally wear them outside, I just spray the bottoms with Lysol, put them on the shoe rack and that’s it,” says Johnson. Mitchell, who is described by friends as a ‘Crocfluencer’, prefers a different method of cleaning. “If they get dirty I bring a little dish soap in the shower with me and give the Crocs a little shower.”

“The longer we stay at home and are able to be in ‘non-work clothes,’ the harder it will be for us to get back into our hard pants and high heels,” explains Elizabeth Semmelhack, Senior Curator at the Bata Shoe Museum. She also points out the non-gender specific shape might be what makes them so appealing to the Zoomer demographic. “We’re in a moment of incredible political and cultural change, so it would make sense that a younger generation would want to wear shoes that don’t have that same history of being gendered.”

Though Crocs sudden and surprising burst of popularity didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, it’s difficult to say whether the moment will last. “I don’t know how much I’ll be wearing the Crocs post-quarantine,” says Goertz. “But then again, quarantine might last indefinitely.”

Shop Crocs

Embellished Platform Sandals

Balenciaga + Crocs

£645.00

Classic Bae Clogs

Crocs

$54.99

Classic Snake-Printed Clogs

Crocs Anthropologie

$45.00

Classic Floral Clogs

Crocs Anthropologie

$45.00

Classic Tie Dye Clogs

Crocs

$39.95

Classic Vacay Clogs

Crocs

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Leah Zelaya has dreamed of being a designer for as long as she can remember. She studies fashion magazines, sketches out ideas for red-carpet looks, and even walked in a NYFW show earlier this year.

Ask about her style icons and she’ll drop some of today’s biggest names: Jennifer Lopez, because she’s «not afraid to wear glitter and shine,» and Taylor Swift, for her sartorial superpower to shape-shift from country cute to vampy goth to cottagecore.

Courtesy Leah Zelaya

The 13-year-old is closely attuned to the ebb and flow of the industry’s biggest trends—so she also knows there’s still a long way to go when it comes to creating clothing for bodies like hers.

Leah was diagnosed with scapuloperoneal spinal muscular atrophy or SPSMA, a rare type of neuromuscular disease, at the age of 6. As she got older, her fine motor skills began to weaken and she starting losing muscle tissue. Today, she uses leg braces to walk short distances and bilateral forearm crutches or her wheelchair for longer distances.

Any activity that requires grabbing can be extremely difficult. That includes getting dressed.

«Things like buttoning and zipping can really hurt my fingers and take a really long time, and I also have trouble getting pants to fit over my leg braces,» Leah tells ELLE.com. «I’m someone that wants to be independent, but just getting dressed in the morning has been a barrier to that. I especially dreaded using zippers because of the weakness in my hands.»

Courtesy Leah Zelaya

While inclusive fashion is on the rise, Leah says it’s still hard to find items that are both inexpensive and in vogue. So, she created an adaptive hack to modify what she already owns. With help from Open Style Lab, a nonprofit that creates wearable solutions for people of all abilities, Leah spent four weeks developing an assistive device for zippers.

The prototype is called «Easy Zip,» and will be for sale as part of Open Style Lab’s hackability toolkit. (You can get on the waitlist here.). All profits go back into funding for the organization’s summer program with Muscular Dystrophy Association this year to support aspiring fashion designers like Leah.

«My philosophy is that fashion for people with disabilities should be affordable and cute,» she says. «It’s typically really expensive to get adaptable clothes, especially more stylish options. So, my design philosophy is that accessibility must mean affordability, too.»

Leah Zelaya

She describes Easy Zip as «donut-like,» with a big open oval and a hook at the top. «It’s very simple,» she says. «You put the hook through the zipper and you can zip it up and down.»

While a traditional zipper can take Leah up to 20 minutes to pull up, the helper cuts the process down to seconds. It can be used to tie shoes, button a shirt, and open and close handbags. It’s also detachable and small enough to carry around in a purse.

Leah Zelaya

Leah says the selling point for Easy Zip—and what sets it apart from other devices on the market—is that it’s customizable. «It comes with… glitter glue and stickers, so anyone can make it reflect their personal style,» she says. «We’re addressing challenges and creating hacks without sacrificing style.»

For her, Easy Zip is just the start. Leah is also working on a footwear design in a wide range of styles and colors that can fit over her leg braces.

«There’s still so much work to be done [when it comes to accessible fashion],» she says. «Bathing suits is another area. Current designs are really challenging for people with disabilities to put on, especially when they’re wet. I hope to see more options in casual, day-to-day clothing, too.»

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io