Summer’s most standard sandal is getting a fashion-forward upgrade.

This week, Havaianas, the Brazilian brand that’s made $20 rubber flip-flops for over 60 years, is rolling out a collaboration with Italian luxury label Dolce & Gabbana. The collection features four classic Havaianas’ flip-flops done in classically D&G maximalist prints, including leopard, zebra and bright, illustrated florals. At $138, they’re priced over six times higher than a standard pair of Havaianas, and will be sold at luxury retailers like Selfridges and Galeries Lafayette, as well as on both brands’ direct-to-consumer websites.

It’s all part of Havaianas’ plan to harness this current moment, where its flagship shoe is on the upswing.

The brand, which saw its first-quarter profits increase nearly 9 percent and sales go up 3 percent from 2023 to 2024, is focussing on getting in front of consumers. D&G is its third collaboration this year, following team-ups with fellow Brazilian-born label Farm Rio in March and lifestyle label Maison Kitsuné in April. Last fall, it rolled out a new brand campaign, and this summer, it will further lean into out-of-home advertising and in-store display to maximise its busiest season.

“Being part of people’s lives again is a must for us,” said Maria Fernanda Albuquerque, vice president of global marketing at Havaianas’ parent company Alpargatas SA. “Flip-flops are super on trend, so we need to ride this wave.”

It’s a good time for the sandal seller to align itself with a luxury label (even if it’s one with a controversial past). The luxury market can’t seem to get enough flip-flops. Major brands, including Chanel, Loewe, Prada, Saint Laurent, Gucci, Tory Burch and Louis Vuitton, are all selling pairs, plus fashion favourites like Jil Sander, Toteme and Khaite.

Nostalgia is, of course, a driving factor. (Even the Millennial favourite squishy “Floaties” flip-flops are back; a made-for-2024 version is available at Free People and Amazon.) But the flip-flop’s coming resurgence is proof that even in the age of TikTok micro-fads, the standard playbook for driving trends is alive and well: It’s trickled through the upper echelons of the fashion industry, and now is poised to break through to the masses.

Sales haven’t yet seen an uptick, according to market research company Circana, but it’s still early on in the trends’ lifespan. Nikolas Minoglou, co-founder and CEO of footwear seller Ancient Greek Sandals, said the brand didn’t see much wholesale interest nine months ago, which he attributed to caution around an unproven trend. On its DTC channels, however, its seen flip-flop sales increase threefold this year. Minoglou added that he believes the increase could have been four or five as much if the company had the stock. (Ancient Greek Sandals is currently producing more of its flip-flop styles to meet demand.)

This wave of flip-flops and thong sandals are better suited to a dinner out than a day at the pool. The Row kicked it off with the debut of its Ginza sandal — a $990 flip-flop with a leather or suede upper and a one-inch platform — in 2019; by the Spring 2024 season, elevated takes on the flip-flop were appearing on the runway at Chanel, Staud, Ferragamo, Proenza Schouler and more. Now, Madewell and Gap are selling more thong-inspired sandals, as well as direct-to-consumer players like Rothy’s (which is owned by the same parent company as Havaianas) and Reformation.

“I used to only wear flip flops home from pedicures, it wasn’t something that I’d walk around in all day,” said Rachel Cohen Smolyar, a content creator and a former buyer for Bergdorf Goodman. “But obviously when big brands like The Row are pushing a shoe, people are going to buy them.”

Fashion’s Take on Flip-Flops

In some ways, today’s flip-flops are different from the ones that came before; in others, they’re eerily familiar.

Styles that were aughts staples, like Havaianas, are making their way back into the fashion conversation, as are platform flip-flops, which saw searches increase 255 percent this spring, according to analytics platform Trendalytics. But there’s also more unique twists, from versions that extend to wrap around the wearers’ ankle (think Miu Miu’s popular Riviere cord and leather sandals) to more dressed-up styles with a kitten heel — Trendalytics found that searches for kitten heel flip flops increased 700 percent in April.

J.Crew, Loft, Mango and even Old Navy, synonymous with rubber flip-flops, have introduced leather (or faux) versions, many unmistakably inspired by The Row’s Ginza or its City or Beach styles. Havaianas, too, has introduced a more stylish square-toed version of its rubber flip-flop, plus a number of new silhouettes inspired by the thong shape or introducing design details like chains and buckles to the rubber silhouette.

Giving a utilitarian sandal a fashion upgrade is a playbook that’s worked in the past. Look at Birkenstock, which has collaborated with the likes of Jil Sander and Rick Owens, and seen its stock rise by over 60 percent since its October 2023 IPO.

Likewise, these updates will help consumers consider flip-flops for a different setting, beyond the pool.

“What the industry is really struggling with lately is consumers pulling back on their buying, newness and innovation becomes more important.” said Beth Goldstein, executive director and footwear industry analyst at Circana. “It’s not necessarily recreating the wheel but evolving it. So people are like, ‘I had this but now it’s something new that I don’t have in my closet, so I’m going to go for it.’”

Behind the Rise of the Flip-Flop

The flip-flop’s current prevalence is also a reminder that despite how much TikTok dominates the conversation, with its rapid-fire, hyper-specific trends like “mob wife” and “coastal grandmother,” it’s still possible for the old rules of trends to apply, particularly when thinking about the rise of an overall product category.

“Nowadays sometimes we see trends on TikTok, in the masses first,” said Kendall Becker, director of trend and editorial strategy for analytics platform Trendalytics. “This was hands down sparked by runways and luxury.”

Goldstein attributes the lack of a sales bump so far to the fact that seasonal footwear generally is softer than more year-round styles like loafers and sneakers. According to Becker, it may be because people may be seeking out specific shoes, like The Row’s Ginza.

There’s reason to believe that shift will begin this summer. According to Trendalytics, searches for thong sandals were up 12 percent in May; as temperatures rise, more people will reevaluate their sandal collection. The options are certainly available, and as influencers further embrace the style, consumers are likely to follow.

“For some reason the flip flops make you look cooler, like wearing an evening dress and flip flops,” said Christina Martini, the co-founder and designer of Ancient Greek Sandals. “We’ve seen that a lot lately, that creates an appetite for it.”

Last week, designer Marc Jacobs made plain a position he said he’s held since 2018: his brand doesn’t work with, use or sell fur, and it won’t in the future either.

The statement posted on Instagram followed aggressive campaigning by activists that not only targeted Marc Jacobs stores, but also the homes of the brand’s leadership, with protests the designer described as “bullying.”

To be clear, The Humane Society of the United States — the animal welfare advocacy organisation where I work — doesn’t support such tactics. We believe they can alienate people and cut off chances for dialogue. Instead, it’s better long-term to build positive relationships with brands and retailers.

But in our efforts to build such bridges, we’ve observed a different brand of bullying quietly but relentlessly exerted by the owner of the Marc Jacobs brand, LVMH.

For instance, in 2018 we worked with Claire Waight Keller, then creative director for LVMH’s Givenchy brand, to announce a fur-free policy. The only problem was, LVMH wouldn’t allow it, insiders told me at the time. Still, Keller was determined to dissociate herself and Givenchy from fur, and went public with her position in an interview with InStyle editor-in-chief Laura Brown. In a similar fashion, LVMH’s Celine hasn’t used fur since its Spring/Summer 2019 womenswear collection, quietly slipping a formal fur ban into its communications in late 2022.

Marc Jacobs first came on our radar in 2012, when we discovered that multiple Marc by Marc Jacobs jackets advertised as containing “faux fur” were actually made with animal fur. After further testing, we determined that the fur came from a raccoon dog, a species in the same family as domestic dogs. Our investigation landed on the front page of a New York tabloid with the headline, “Bark Jacobs.”

Raccoon dogs have been skinned alive for their fur and we reached out to Marc Jacobs then, and several more times in the following years, to see if it would be open to a conversation about moving away from animal fur — or even just raccoon dog fur. At the very least, we hoped to work with the company to understand federal law and label its fur products correctly, so consumers wouldn’t be duped into buying something they would rather avoid. No one from the company responded.

Eventually Marc Jacobs did stop using fur in 2018 (though the designer declined to officially declare his brand fur free at the time). Yet five years later, the company teamed up with LVMH fur and leather goods giant Fendi and sent fox fur hats down the runway at New York Fashion Week. Though the brands said the fur used in the collection was “upcycled,” it sparked the protests that ultimately culminated in this week’s statement.

In defence of Marc Jacobs, it’s not clear how much say he had over his label’s fur policy given the experience we’ve observed with other LVMH brands, which appear to have been guided away from public statements on their fur policies (the group did not respond to a request for comment).

The French luxury giant’s quiet pressure extends beyond its own maisons as well. Just last month, LVMH sent a delegation to Brussels to try to dissuade members of the European Commission from moving forward with an EU ban on fur production, according to investigative media Glitz, even though opinion polls show most Europeans support such a step and 20 EU countries have already introduced their own bans.

The approach taken by LVMH rival Kering, which has proclaimed its opposition to fur loudly, cuts a stark contrast. To be sure, the Gucci owner always had a smaller fur business with little bearing on its brands’ heritage or luxury positioning. And its leadership was early to grasp that granting its brands the autonomy to publicly quit fur would boost their cultural relevance and market positioning, with little damage to the bottom line.

When Gucci went fur-free in 2017, saying the material was “outdated” and not “modern,” the calculus was a game-changer for the fur market, and the brand continues to benefit from the marketing halo created by its stance. After Gucci, several other Kering brands went fur-free, including Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen and Saint Laurent. And in 2021, Kering announced an across-the-board fur-free policy, saying it had “no place in luxury.”

Self-interested though they may be, policies like these have encouraged more innovation in developing fur alternatives. Increasingly, options are coming to market that are not only animal-free, but plastic-free as well, putting further pressure on the fur trade.

Marc Jacobs may feel a bit aggrieved at the moment, but his fur-free announcement is something to celebrate, and we are confident he will feel better about his decision soon enough. We hope fashion fans around the globe will show the brand some love. And who knows, maybe LVMH will stumble out of the fog to join the rest of the industry in seeing self-interest in a more compassionate path.

PJ Smith is the director of fashion policy for the Humane Society of the United States.

The views expressed in Op-Ed pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Business of Fashion.

How to submit an Op-Ed: The Business of Fashion accepts opinion articles on a wide range of topics. The suggested length is 700-1000 words, but submissions of any length within reason will be considered. All submissions must be original and exclusive to BoF. Submissions may be sent to opinion@businessoffashion.com. Please include ‘Op-Ed’ in the subject line and be sure to substantiate all assertions. Given the volume of submissions we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond in the event that an article is not selected for publication.

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Generation Z, or Gen-Z — those born roughly between 1995 and 2009 — today account for more than two billion people, or about 30 percent, of the global population, according to the World Economic Forum. Next year, Gen-Z is estimated to make up 27 percent of the global workforce and have a spending power of $450 billion, according to the BBC in 2023.

“Reinventing Influence: The Gen Z Impact on Fashion Marketing” is the latest report by software, data and insights company Launchmetrics, offering expert analysis and insights on its global data on brand and influencers’ media impact value (MIV): a proprietary algorithm created and trademarked by Launchmetrics to measure and benchmark the impact of all media placements and mentions across different voices and channels in the fashion, lifestyle and beauty industries.

Ranking fashion and lifestyle brands and retailers across the luxury, premium and mass-market segments, assessing their market position according to MIV and those generating the greatest growth, the Launchmetrics report assesses the most impactful brands and case studies on leading examples in each category.

Below, BoF shares extracts from the report, spotlighting which fashion and retail brands are currently performing well in terms of MIV.

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Luxury Brands Insight: Building a Brand on Viral-Worthy Content Moments

BoF: After more than a decade of rapid growth in the luxury segment, brands are experiencing a challenge in maintaining momentum today. However, growth at Prada’s Miu Miu label is far outpacing the wider luxury market, with retail sales up 58 percent in 2023. A key part of the strategy is about generating media mentions to telegraph the brand to a bigger potential audience — its micro-mini skirt for Spring/Summer 2022, for example, caused a media sensation. Critically, you didn’t need to buy the skirt to participate in the conversation — young audiences would slash skirts at home and still feel part of the moment.

Launchmetrics Report: Overall, there has been tremendous growth in the luxury industry since the pandemic. The top 20 brands alone represent an average of 69 percent growth in MIV in just 3 years, with Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton taking the top 3 places. Loewe, Celine, Miu Miu and Valentino all saw significant hikes in their MIV.

Miu Miu has always been known as the younger sister of Prada, but staying young and relevant is just as hefty a task as it is for any other brand. The Italian luxury brand knows it’s not just down to mastering the product – collaborating with the right Voices is key. For the debut of the SS24 collection, Sydney Sweeney, Emma Chamberlain, Zaya Wade and Alix Earle all attended the show and boosted buzz for the brand across socials.

Within this segment, the celebrity voice saw significant growth over the past few years, more than quadrupling its value, from $1.7B to $7.6B (+347 percent hike, the most across all voices across all segments). The voice with the second highest growth was influencers (+177 percent).

Discover more insights in the report, including Schiaparelli’s immense growth in MIV since the pandemic and the strategy behind it, from Kylie Jenner’s lion dress look and Doja Cat’s head-to-toe red crystal-studded look on the front row at the SS23 Haute Couture show.

Premium Brands Insight: Tapping into Topics that Matter to Gen-Z

BoF: Premium brands have benefitted from well-timed celebrity campaigns, from Skims’ casting of “The White Lotus” actors Simona Tabasco and Beatrice Grannò for its Valentine’s Day 2023 campaign and Calvin Klein’s Spring 2024 campaign with “The Bear” actor Jeremy Allen White, resulting in a 30 percent year-over-year increase in underwear sales. Consumers are increasingly gravitating towards relatable and authentic influencers than other attributes such as an aspirational lifestyle or celebrity status, according to the BoF-McKinsey consumer survey for The State of Fashion 2024.

Launchmetrics: Kim Kardashian’s brand, Skims, went from not even appearing in top 20 in the year of the pandemic, to topping the charts with an MIV of $638M in 2023 (+407% since 2020).

Founded in 2019, Skims is now reportedly worth $4B and is the ultimate example of influencer marketing success. Not only did Kim Kardashian propel the brand’s Media Impact Value through her own fame, but also through collaborations with a wide array of celebrities (such as Cardi B, Sza or Brazilian soccer player Neymar da Silva Santos Junior).

By addressing an untapped niche of shapewear and loungewear for people of all colors and sizes, Skims has cultivated a distinct lifestyle and community that resonates with the value of inclusivity and the needs of the newest generation of shoppers.

American brands hold dominance in the top 10 premium brands (Skims, Calvin Klein, Coach, Levi’s, Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger). The average growth in MIV among the top 20 brands over the years is +114 percent (compared to 69 percent for luxury).

For premium brands, the influencer voice has seen an incredible hike of 214 percent from $2.1B in MIV to $6.6B. However, the celebrity voice is the one that has seen the biggest growth, at 262 percent.

Discover more insights in the report, including Levi’s strategy to connect with the younger, eco-minded generation, tapping influencer Emma Chamberlain.

Sportswear and Mass Market Brands Insight: Focus on Comfort and Cultural Moments

BoF: Sportswear continues to be a stand-out category in 2024 and Nike continues to dominate the segment by a wide margin, continuing to tap high-profile athletes to create bold ad campaigns, aligning the brand with cultural moments and social causes in doing so. This approach typically resonates with Gen-Z, who like to align themselves with brands that share their values around issues like sustainability. However, their consumer and social media behaviour does not always follow suit.

Launchmetrics: The mass market fashion and sportswear segment saw the lowest growth compared to premium and luxury, at an average of +62 percent growth in MIV across the top 20 brands, but only slightly behind luxury (+69 percent). Nike, Adidas and Zara continue to hold the top 3 positions, proving mastery in staying relevant among younger consumers.

Shein’s growth is the most noteworthy amongst the top 20 mass market brands, perhaps unsurprisingly as this Chinese behemoth has been highlighted as one of Gen Z’s favorite brands across several studies, including Piper & Sandler’s Gen Z analysis of favorite brands.

In 2023 alone, Shein’s MIV jumped by 41% year on year with 305K placements. Although the brand has focused mainly on amplifying their impact through Owned Media and Influencers (representing 35% and 41% of their Voice split in 2023 respectively), the brand also leverages celebrities to garner buzz.

Shein’s top placement in 2023 was thanks to their partnership with Brazilian Gen Z celebrity, Virginia Fonseca Serrão Costa, generating $853K with just one Instagram post.

The influencer voice has seen the most growth since 2020 in this segment, at +90 percent, with the MIV value nearly doubling from $3.7B to $7B. The celebrity voice has almost doubled in value with a +74 percent growth, but holds a lower share of value than for premium and luxury brands.

Discover more insights in the report, including a case study on Crocs, tapping into Gen-Z’s desire for unique and constantly-changing fashion trends and the footwear company’s varying collaborations with brands like MSCHF, Balenciaga and Barbie.

This is a sponsored feature paid for by Launchmetrics as part of a BoF partnership.

Join us on Wednesday, June 19 at 17:00 BST / 12:00 EDT for our next BoF Professional Masterclass. BoF’s Marc Bain and Liz Flora, along with a panel of experts, will break down the key strategies for brands launching and growing a loyalty programme in beauty and fashion, at all points of the process.

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