Gucci’s cost £300 and Valentino’s £220 take are decorated with platinum studs: you probably save your flip-flops for beach holidays and communal showers but the A-list are wearing them on the red carpet and along the front row.
In New York last month, the It-girl Olivia Palermo attended an event wearing a pair of black flip-flops with a smart pinstripe suit. At the haute couture shows in Paris, the street style star Pernille Teisbaek (574,000 followers on Instagram) teamed a pair of yellow Havaianas with a dress from the Parisian fashion house Celine.
The Danish stylist Emili Sindlev wore a pair of £22 plastic Havaianas with a silk skirt and Dior’s latest It-bag on the front row in Copenhagen this week.
The influencers Trine Kjaer and Funda Christophersen also wore the Brazilian brand’s rubber thongs.
Some 399 pairs of Havaianas are sold every minute — more than 200 million a year — with fans including Jennifer Aniston and Gwyneth Paltrow. Prices range from £18 for plain rubber flip-flops to £185 for styles encrusted with large Swarovski crystals.
More recently, luxury brands have given flip-flops an upmarket spin.
Michael Kors sent models down his spring-summer 2018 catwalk wearing simple black dresses and matching flip-flops
At Marc Jacobs, they had fat soles and were decorated with flower crystals
Dion Lee’s were worn with silk evening gowns
The singer Rihanna gave the rubber sandal a 5in heel for her collection for Puma
The style is thought to date back as early as 1,500BC when they were made out of papyrus and palm leaves and worn by the ancient Egyptians. The modern style descends from Japanese Zori shoes, which became popular in Europe and America in the 1950s as US soldiers brought them back after the Second World War.
Time to hose the sand off yours and wear them to your next cocktail party.