Low-to-the-ground luxury: the great comeback of shoes with rubber pebbles Why the Y2K icon will be the footwear of the coming season

When we think of fashion in the early 2000s there are many things that come to mind: the ill-fated red carpet looks of the young Disney actors, the Capri pants, the fedoras and vests, whatever John Cena wore, the low-rise jeans. There is, however, another icon from those years that we don't remember enough about, perhaps because their heritage is alive even now, perhaps because their unusual elegance made them so "for grown-ups" at the time: the rubber-pebbled loafers. Although they had been around for at least two decades, gumshoe loafers or driving shoes had become the thing to have in the early 2000s, a refreshing break from the formalism of the corporate loafer and other formal shoes that evoked a world too unplayful and modern for Gen X and then-teenage Millennials. Their main manufacturer in the luxury world was then and remains today Tod's, which named its models Gommino precisely to emphasize their unmistakable iconicity. Indeed, the Della Valle brand has never stopped producing them over the years (even establishing a custom-made service to personalize them), 2023 may be about to mark their return as a cultural icon. 

But why, then, should grommeted shoes be about to make a comeback? Beyond their appearances in fashion shows, and beyond their now 40-year status as the icon of a brand like Tod's, two cultural factors are aligning this year in such a way as to presage the coming boom of grommeted shoes. The first of all is the return of consumers to "safe" products, capable of withstanding the trend cycle and expressive of craftsmanship that moves away from the boredom and shoddy quality of the industrialized product. The second is the search for an alternative footwear to the sneaker, now over-saturated after the streetwear boom, and therefore to be replaced with models that are more "elevated" or adult but retain their comfort - a type of need that has led to the hitherto unheralded success of mules and backless shoes in general, reintroducing updated versions of formal footwear, which has brought back in vogue gardening shoes or low shoe models such as the Friulane and ballet flats, but also the low and thin adidas Samba. The "luxury slipper" vibe is the new vibe, with shoes going from monumental and solid as stone back to lightweight and flexible - but no less luxurious.

In the moment fashion is in today, where the codes of the past are being rethought and re-appropriated to break the conventions in which repetition, over the years, has locked them; in the post-streetwear world in which the Vans slip-on is being replaced by the moccasin, the hoodie by the mohair sweater, and even tailored pants are becoming increasingly baggy, it is not hard to imagine the moment when the rubber-soled driving shoe emerges from its business casual prison, taking on a new form, one that is close to tradition but not attached to it. Something similar has already happened in the aforementioned collaboration between Tod's, Moncler and Palm Angels, and perhaps, with fashion the conditional is always a must, this very collaboration could be the springboard for a fashion comeback that echoes in the Italian footwear and craftsmanship tradition.