Rihanna Hits the Pavement in the Newest ‘Ugly’ Shoe

glamour.com:

, Kylie Jenner’s Sportmax pedi-spreaders, and —that going sock-first on the street now seems an entirely logical thing to do.With perhaps the exception of Jacob Elordi and barefooting the sidewalks of Beverly Hills, there are few people who can get away with treating a filth-ridden urban centre like it was some kind of Bahaman beach resort.

It’s a casual signaling of someone’s status. And to step out in nothing but a pair of socks—or at least that have been trompe-l’œiled to look like woollen socks—suggests that someone is so rich and so famous that they have transcended even the most basic requirements of behavioral conduct. (It helps, of course, that Rihanna is never more than five yards away from a chauffeur-driven town car and a shoal of umbrella-wielding assistants.)Here’s the thing: the so-called “ugly shoe” has been mainstreamed to such an extent that few are capable of inspiring shock.

That is because most of these designs—like Naomi Campbell’s Loewe balloon heels and —are cartoon, aestheticized versions of ugliness.

Our eyes have adjusted to the horrors. And so, it perhaps takes someone like Rihanna to subvert convention and take the whole thing to newly offensive extremes.