The Crocs with vintage Dries Van Noten pants and Celine bag.
Photo: Laura Ferrara
First reported in last week’s Secret Strategist, we noticed stylist Laura Ferrara wearing an unusually minimal pair of Crocs in an Instagram Story, so we reached out to her to find out more about them.
It’s weird how I came across them. I was doing a shoot — I guess it was the end of June — and I was asked last minute, the night before the shoot, to bring Wellies for the models, because we were shooting in Prospect Park and it might be wet. I didn’t want them in Wellies because that would be too heavy and we were going to be walking around the park. It was hot even though it rained.
It was so late at night, almost nine o’clock. I live on White Street, and everything was closed nearby, and I was like, Where am I going to go? I was walking along Broadway and there was a T.J. Maxx open. I walked in and asked if they had slippers or flip-flops. I had never been in one of these places. It was extraordinary, first of all, and I thought, How did I not know? This is in the middle of prime Broadway.
I went downstairs and saw these plastic flip-flops that were the Crocs. I thought, actually, you know what — these would be good because they’re not heavy. The model can easily flip them on and off, walk around with them, the whole thing. I was working with a male model and a female model, and they just happened to have two pairs. Random. I got them and they worked out really well. And then I was like, You know what? I’m just going to wear them.
I’ve been wearing them all the time now. I come upstate a lot. I was at my friend’s house and didn’t have shoes to go to get eggs from the chickens. But then I realized, Oh, actually, I have these shoes in my car. I put them on and went in, and they were easy to wash off, so great. I needed to get back to the city that night for a friend’s opening at Demisch Danant. I guess someone took a picture of me with the flip-flops on at the show, which was French furniture from the ’60s. I was so late that I didn’t have time to go home and change from getting the eggs from the chickens with these flip-flops. I hosed them off and drove to New York, thinking I’d go home and get changed. But I didn’t have time, so I ended up there with these shoes on. People asked me, “Wait, is that The Row?” Or “Is that a Givenchy knockoff?” And I’m like, “No.”
Ferrara paired the Crocs with a vintage French men’s workjacket.
Photo: Laura Ferrara
The crazy thing is, I do 10,000 steps in these. They’re really comfortable. And the other great thing: New York City in the summer is so yucky, but there are all these hydrants that are open, so I just put my feet in them.
Truthfully, I wear them with long summery dresses and skirts. I wear them with my jeans. I even ordered a second pair because I’m going to Europe for the rest of the summer and these are so easy and light. I have a pair in my car along with these industrial boots that you wear when you’re working outside. I always have a pair of those in my car, and now I have a pair of these Crocs.
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