Would You Wear $690 Flip-Flops?

A dozen eggs are not the only thing going up exorbitantly in price. The global market shift towards a recession is directly impacting luxury fashion. Notably, a 100%-cotton long-sleeved T-shirt from Miu Miu is $1,050, tempting the ultrarich to senselessly drop over $1,000 on a basic. One of the more intriguing luxury drops we’ve seen are The Row flip-flops from their Spring 2025 collection, which come in at $690 — and naturally, Hailey Bieber picked up the tan pair for her post-Pilates ‘fits. Could these be the albatross of luxury goods?

I first spotted the style on fashion content creator and designer Morgan Stewart McGraw, whose shoe posts on Instagram stories are a surefire way for brands to gain traction (she regularly helps sell out select color-ways of Chanel flats). She posted three (!) pairs of The Row shoes — tan, red, and black — which total to over $2,000 for three rubber sandals. Stewart McGraw is a capital-C client, who attends Paris Fashion Week, yes, for her outsized influence over women with the means to swipe on brand-name slingbacks, but even she is not immune to the increase in prices across the board.

So, are they actually worth the price, or are they a statement piece made to provoke thinkpieces like this very article? Where some pieces at The Row are actually worth the cash, like their world-class suiting and reasonably priced (for luxury standards) loafers, these are meant to be admired and reimagined with, say, a nice pair of dollar-store flip-flops that will give the same effect. Even the New York Times Style desk debated their merit, and brought up a valid point: They are an under-$1,000 way to buy into the world of the Olsens and their top customers, like Stewart McGraw, Zoë Kravitz, Kendall Jenner, and Bieber. But with a recession looming over America like a dark, day-ruining cloud, don’t expect to see anyone other than the 1% of the 1% in these rubber shoes. I, for one, will be pairing my Havaianas with workwear pants à la The Row lookbook.