I’m at fashion week and everyone hates what I’m wearing
Disgruntled, I began actively soliciting reviews on shoes, saying things like, “Yes, I’m fine, but it’s impossible to walk in them,” just to draw attention to the huge blocks on my feet . The reactions I recorded ranged from “Baby, no” (a social media editor at a competing magazine) to “Looks like you’re going to All Bar One” (a British publicist who, in fact, went at All Bar One). ) to “Please, I’m triggered” (a colleague). I understand. There wasn’t enough time between Triple S’s popularization in the late 2010s and their reevaluation as an ironic, nostalgic trend in the 2020s. But I liked what I heard: there had a little thrill in standing outside of what others considered cool. Especially in an environment like fashion week, where cool is the measure of a person’s worth. Looking awful – or in this case, just plain cheesy – is a really liberating thing.
Besides, the critics are wrong. The original Triple S – so named for its stacked sole and first revealed in Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2017 collection – is one of the most important design pieces of the last decade. Considered so controversial that Ralph Rucci once wrote “I was told to shut up and looked the other way, but I can’t tolerate this anymore” in a scathing Instagram rant, he has since spawned everything kind of so bad. -these are good shoes, a trend that is still (still) current. There’s a reason why every drop sold out in 60 minutes, a reason why they were so aggressively pirated, and a reason why I took someone much older – and much wealthier – on a trip to Dover Street Market, just for him to buy them for me, with no intention of doing him any favors he might have hoped for. The joy I felt prancing around East London far outweighed any shame at feeling like a crook. I’m no longer sensitive to the desperate tug of a shoe, but I’m happy to be able to wear these at Prada on the weekend. I think Miuccia – the high priestess of ugly chic – would understand.
