Showing posts with label tourist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tourist. Show all posts

Fab or Fugly - Birkenstock Edition

January 7, 2014

A while back I talked about how tourist-inspired fashions were running rampant over the spring 2014 runways - everyone from Marc Jacobs to Miuccia Prada featured Hawaiian floral prints and tacky visors, it seemed. But it seems, my friends, that the fascination with the tacky and cheesy has gotten a bit out of hand.

When I saw the floral-print Givenchy Birkenstocks on display at Nordstrom over the holidays, I knew we had a serious problem. I thought the tacky tourist trend was mostly a joke. But with a $750 price tag, I realized this was no laughing matter.

Robert Clergerie Caliba Leather Sandals | Givenchy Floral-Print Double-Buckle Sandals

Birkenstocks seem to be everywhere lately, and not just on middle-aged, pasty women with fanny packs clipped around their waists either. No, fashionistas everywhere are embracing comfort and "style" (if you can call them stylish), trading in their perfectly polished Valentino studded pumps for these, ehem, interesting sandals. And on the right woman, they may even look *gasp* chic! 


I'll need to review some heavy evidence before I can make a final verdict.


Marni Spring 2014
Source
Source
Givenchy Spring 2014
The Man Repeller
Preen Resort 2014

I can't say I'll be hopping out to buy Birkenstocks any time soon, but I am quite fascinated by the way in which women have been able to transform these seemingly hideous sandals into a cool fashion statement - quite the talent, I must say.

What is your opinion on birkenstocks? Are they absolutely fabulous or downright fugly?

The Tourist

October 19, 2013

Band of Outsiders; Tommy Hilfiger; Tory Burch; Marni; Opening Ceremony
When you grow up in a vacation town, you learn to loathe any temporary visitors above all other things. They infiltrate our beaches and most-beloved hangout spots, they seem to have trouble grasping the driving laws, and they ask you embarrassingly-ridiculous questions like "Where is the beach?" (Seriously, guys. It's a mile-wide island, it is not that hard to find the ocean.)

There are a lot of things about tourists that drive us locals absolutely insane, but the worst thing in the world has got to be their god-awful fashion sense. Fanny packs, socks with sandals, unironic Hawaiian shirts - the whole thing is an interesting sight (but not in a good way).

Marc Jacobs; Marni; J. Crew
And then comes Spring 2014. I had already seen the beginnings of the troubling trend on street style stars and I hoped it would quietly come and go, but Marc Jacobs and Miuccia Prada, to name a few perpetrators, took many aspects of tourist wear and turned them into sartorial stars. People can't stop gawking over the bedazzled Teva sandals at Prada and the socks-with-sandals combo at shows like Band of Outsiders.

For so long I've been sure that these were the clothes of the outsider, the stranger, the person who comes and actually stays at the fancy hotel that my friends and I occasionally sneak into. And now the tables have turned, and these tacky tourist staples are actually cool? No freakin' way.

Of course, where the tourist wears these garments out of comfort, utility, and mistaken stylishness, the fashion-savvy artfully arrange their fanny packs and visors with sleek, minimalist jumpsuits and dresses to achieve the ultimate fashion equilibrium between utterly cool and hopelessly dorky. Not an easy accomplishment, I must say, but even I'll admit they look pretty awesome.