The Naked Foot Is Having a Moment: Chanel Started It, And Doechii and Rihanna Took It to the Met Gala

Every few years, fashion decides that less is more. This time, it’s gone all the way to the floor.

Retreating from the maximalist trend, designers and celebrities are taking the opposite approach: subtraction. Shoes are now disappearing, straps are thinning, and soles are barely there.

The “naked foot” style first caught attention at Chanel’s cruise 2027 runway show in April, when Matthieu Blazy sent out models wearing barely-there sandals with thin straps wrapped around the ankles and a small heel covering. The shoes, as WWD’s Joelle Diderich described, were a “little more than a heel cap.”

Then, celebrities endorsed the emerging trend on the Met Gala‘s red carpet on Monday.

Doechii, who attended the event in a custom Marc Jacobs look, walked in barefoot. She deliberately got henna on her feet to avoid wearing heels, as she explained on the red carpet. Instead of shoes, she wore only anklets. The singer is a known supporter of going barefoot at high-profile events — she previously ditched her footwear while sitting in the front row at a Chloé fashion show in 2025.

Rihanna also adopted the naked foot look, wearing a delicate sandal that wouldn’t be noticeable if it weren’t for an eye-catching gemstone on her big toe. The style complemented her celestial look from Maison Margiela — the label notably included heel-less, barefoot-looking styles in its fall 2026 collection.

In the past, other brands have succeeded with barefoot-like silhouettes, from Salvatore Ferragamo’s transparent nylon “Invisible Sandal” in 1947 to Alexander McQueen’s lucite platforms in 1997. In recent years, barely-there sandals and toe-ring styles have been gaining traction at the retail level, with searches for minimalist sandals and flip-flops rising significantly in 2025. Whether the naked foot trend will translate beyond the red carpet remains to be seen.