These Practical Shoes Are Back in Rotation with a Twist

Why practical shoes are emerging as a key fashion trend in 2025

The end of summer always brings a shift in how we dress, but this year the transition feels unusually stark. The easy glamour of flip-flops, strappy sandals, and lightweight trainers, made for beaches and rooftop bars, has given way to something heavier and decidedly less glamorous. Call it a collective rejection of footwear that tries too hard.

The practical shoe is back.

Across runways, red carpets, and city streets, styles once dismissed as frumpy or forgettable are returning with surprising cultural weight. These are shoes that favor utility over allure: loafers with rounded toes, brogues with thick soles, and boat shoes built for practicality rather than polish. They may seem better suited to fathers, teachers, or pensioners, yet more and more it is film stars who are choosing to wear them.

Stars lead the way

At the Venice Film Festival this year, the evidence was hard to miss. Callum Turner, looking every inch a James Bond contender in a tuxedo, anchored the outfit with lace-ups that might have been lifted from a solicitor’s wardrobe. Callum himself looked magnetic, but the shoes did not. And that was exactly the point.

Jesse Plemons, in his characteristically restrained style, paired a grey checked suit and coral shirt with plain brown boat shoes. Andrew Garfield, long associated with slim, fashion-forward tailoring, chose a cornflower-blue Dior pullover and suede loafers.

Fashion houses have already taken notice. Jonathan Anderson’s debut show for Dior featured leather fisherman’s sandals that seemed almost aggressively practical, alongside bulbous trainers in muted browns and greys.

Prada embraced the aesthetic from several angles: tasselled loafers bordering on parody and derbies with truncated toes that revealed the socks beneath, as if functionality had overridden finesse. At Craig Green, brogues were weighted with straps, tassels, and snaps, falling somewhere between workwear and parody but still very much in keeping with the moment.

The defining qualities of the practical shoe are easy to spot. They are sturdy, sometimes clumsy in proportion, with round toes and thick soles. They are most often found in neutral shades such as black, brown, or beige, avoiding the bright tones and busy patterns that dominated sneaker culture over the past decade. A buckle that once seemed childish or old-fashioned now reads as a gesture of restraint.

The paradox of practicality

There is, paradoxically, a sophistication in this retreat from glamour. To wear a practical shoe is to signal disinterest in the trappings of display. Unlike the sleek trainer or the strappy sandal, the practical shoe does not beg to be admired. It is content in its ordinariness, projecting a confidence that is itself fashionable. As one stylist put it recently, “the coolest shoe is the one that doesn’t care if it’s cool.”

This is not to say that practical means ugly. Many of these designs carry their own beauty, with shapes balanced in their heft, colours that resist excess, and details that lean toward function rather than flair. Something is reassuring about footwear that does not sacrifice comfort for appearance. A padded insole, a waterproof sole, and a generous welt are features that suggest durability and long-term wear.

And, perhaps most importantly, these shoes are comfortable. They protect feet from rain and pavement. They offer support on long walks home. When the party is over and the stylish sandals have left their wearers blistered and limping, the person in the sturdy brogue or the padded loafer will be the one still standing.

The last laugh, it turns out, belongs not to the sexy shoe but to the sensible one.

Photos courtesy Prada, Sandro, Lemaire, Venice Film Festival, Craig Green, Dior