The Trends That Should Have Never Been Born (and Must Never Return)
Fashion is no stranger to resurrection. Each season, designers sift through the archives: sometimes with reverence, sometimes with recklessness; and decide which ghosts of style past will rise again. And yet, not every past deserves a revival. Some trends were questionable in their own era, born more from marketing than merit, more from viral value than visual harmony. The worst of them? They always seem to come back.
This piece is a refusal. A soft-spoken rebellion against aesthetic chaos masquerading as innovation. As someone who has studied design, styling, textiles, fabrication, and the long seduction of fashion as both art and commerce, I can tell you: some pieces do not deserve revival. They were not misunderstood. They were just bad. From poor proportions to confused identity, these are trends that interrupted elegance. And it’s time we buried them properly.
The Visible Thong
It was a scandal in the early 2000s, and now it's back, paraded as a statement of freedom. But let’s be honest: visible thongs are not subversive. They're lazy styling disguised as edge—trashy, cheap, and frankly, humiliating. No one needs to see your underwear straps climbing out of your waistband unless we’re recreating a very specific 2003 music video. The construction of a good outfit is about layering, proportion, and surprise. A waistband that screams "look at me" undercuts all three.
What was once considered tacky is now being rebranded as playful—but remains tacky— worn by Bella Hadid, J-Lo(w), and countless young girls on TikTok. But the truth? It was never playful. It was always just unrefined. And this modern obsession with being a "baddie"—what even is that? Since when did style become synonymous with provocation? We don’t aspire to be baddies. We seek grace. Femininity. Beauty. Real style. The kind that doesn't scream, but speaks.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
The Split-toe (Tabi-inspired)
Some silhouettes are so jarring, so fundamentally unflattering, that you have to wonder how they even made it through a design pitch. The split-toe flat is one of them. Often hailed as “avant-garde,” “subversive,” or worse—fashion-forward—these shoes divide the big toe from the rest like a hoof. They don’t elongate the leg, they don’t flatter the foot, and they don’t belong anywhere near the word chic.
Maison Margiela may have popularized them in modern fashion, but the original Japanese tabi at least had cultural logic and purpose. The contemporary versions? Pure provocation. They’re not clever. They’re not elegant. They are anatomical oddities that belong on a stage, not on a sidewalk. Calling this innovation is an insult to every sculptor of real footwear.
No matter how many editors try to convince us it’s “elevated minimalism,” it’s not. It’s uncomfortable to look at and somehow even more uncomfortable to wear. A fashion dare, not a design.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
Heeled Sneakers
There are hybrid shoes that work—heels with a lug sole, loafers with a subtle platform—and then there’s this. The heeled sneaker: two worlds forced together under the illusion of harmony, achieving neither comfort nor class. Conceived in the 2010s by Isabel Marant and copied endlessly after, they were marketed as the casual girl’s secret weapon; height boost with streetwear flair. In reality? Clunky silhouettes, unstable footbeds, and awkward lines that disrupted the entire lower body.
Isabel Marant may have sparked the flame with her wedge sneaker over a decade ago, but what followed was a wave of knockoffs that looked like orthopedic moon boots pretending to party. The lines are clumsy. The silhouette is bulky. The foot looks misplaced, the ankle unstable. They don’t lift you; they drag everything down.
No matter how you spin it—elevated streetwear, Parisian off-duty—it remains a shoe that should never have happened.
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Crocs as Fashion
Yes, they are ergonomic. Yes, they are practical. But Crocs were never designed for public-facing!
They are molded in foam, with ventilation holes more suited for hospital shifts or gardening. Somewhere along the line, comfort was confused with couture, and Crocs strutted onto fashion runways. The moment they appeared in fashion magazines, our streets, and decorated with rhinestone charms and smug irreverence, we crossed a line. Not everything needs rebranding.
Calling them ironic or stylish doesn’t change their shape—or their smell in summer. The more we try to justify them, the more dignity we lose.
If it looks like hospital footwear, it's not high fashion. It’s just Crocs.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
UGGs as a Style Statement
Let’s clarify: there is a difference between something you love wearing and something you should defend as stylish. They are warm, pillowy, comfy and cozy —a sanctuary for tired feet that get cold. But they are not designed. The shaft is straight, unflattering, the upper is shapeless, and the sole is cartoonishly thick.
The original design was meant for post-surf warmth, not for cafés, catwalks, or cold-day fashion moments. And yes, we all wear them. But we wear them like we wear robes or oversized pajamas: for comfort, not for show.
Owning them is not the crime. Pretending they’re chic is.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
Yeezy Foam Runners and the Blob Shoe Plague
There is a kind of design that is intentional chaos. When done well, it provokes. But the Yeezy foam runner? It feels more like a mold accident. Oversized, amoeba-shaped, and full of inexplicable holes, it defies not just tradition but anatomy. The material offers no elegance, no line, no form. Just bulk. It’s footwear reduced to provocation. As if looking post-apocalyptic means we’re thinking ahead.
It started with Yeezy, but it didn’t stop there. Now we’re surrounded by bulbous, sponge-like shoes that look like they were left too long in the microwave. These are not shoes. They are design experiments that forgot about the human body.
At best, they’re garden clogs from the year 3000. At worst, they’re the footwear equivalent of a practical joke.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
Gladiator Sandals That Lace to the Thigh
But this? This is an architectural failure.
There is a version of the gladiator sandal that works — slim straps, clean ankle height, intentional lines. But then there’s the full-leg lace-up disaster. The kind that takes ten minutes to put on and twenty seconds to fall down.
They cut the leg in all the wrong places. They interrupt the silhouette. They look like they’re trying too hard — and failing. No matter how toned the calf or tanned the thigh, these sandals never look as good as the effort they require.
Over-designed. Overdone. Over.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
PVC Shoes
The fantasy of Cinderella has a grip on us all, but even her slippers were glass, not plastic. PVC shoes fog, they squeak, they suffocate. They yellow over time. They stick to skin. And yet they persist. Why? Transparency. The illusion of leg-lengthening minimalism. But in practice, they create the opposite. They break the line of the leg with glare and gloss. They turn feet into hothouses. They do not disappear. They reflect light in all the wrong places. A shoe that can steam up mid-event should never make it past the sketchpad.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
Meme Fashion
Fast food purses, Shrek-themed Crocs, clothing designed to go viral… This is not fashion, it is purely merchandise. There is a difference between wit and novelty. A well-placed design joke can be clever, charming, even subversive. But when entire outfits are built around absurdity, the wearer disappears.
Meme fashion is not style; it’s turning your body into a walking joke for the sake of virality. A well-placed design joke? We love. But entire outfits built on absurdity? They age like a tweet from 2016.
Irony isn’t style. It’s a phase.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
Flip-Flops (Especially With Socks)
There are shoes meant for showers, and there are shoes meant for streets. Flip-flops are firmly the former: they are fine poolside, they are acceptable on the sand. But the moment they step onto concrete with intent — especially paired with socks — all sense of elegance is lost.
I remember moving to America from France and seeing people go out like this: socks stuffed into plastic thong sandals as if this were normal attire. I had never even seen the combination in real life before. It wasn’t ironic. It wasn’t normcore. It was just… shocking.
Flip-flops aren’t shoes; they’re a placeholder. And when paired with socks? It becomes a visual contradiction so tragic, it almost loops back to comedy. Almost.
Leave them for the beach. Or the hotel hallway. Never for the world.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
A Note on Crop Tops
Let’s be fair. Crop tops, when well-cut, can be chic. They aren’t the enemy. But not everything needs to be cropped. The moment every blouse, cardigan, jacket, and knit becomes a three-quarter tease, proportion suffers. We need balance. Mid-rise bottoms. Full-length options. The right crop can highlight the waist, elongate the leg. The wrong one chops the torso and leaves the outfit unfinished. Context is everything, and we want options not fragments.
Photos: Found via Pinterest, sources on clickthrough; we always aim to credit photos; if one needs crediting or removal, please contact us with the source.
Elegance doesn’t scream. It doesn’t provoke. It doesn’t hide behind gimmicks or irony. It doesn’t need viral status to be valid.
True style is thoughtful. It’s constructed. It’s intentional. And knowing what not to wear — what to let go, what to never let in — is one of the clearest signs of personal taste.
Let these trends rest. Not in mockery. Not in hatred. Just… in peace.
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