The Flip-Flops Everyone Wants This Summer: The Row’s Dune Sandals

Of all the things that could dominate the fashion conversation this summer, few would have guessed it would be a rubber soled flip flop with a fabric strap. Yet here we are: The Row’s Dune sandals, priced at £670, are topping Lyst’s list of hottest products. This isn’t a shoe laden with crystals or architectural heels, it’s the kind you could find at a beachfront kiosk for under £10, only reimagined for the kind of luxury where understatement is the loudest statement of all.

The Row’s Dune sandals are a perfect example of fashion’s love affair with paradox. On one hand, they’re as unassuming as footwear gets: a red rubber sole, a black grosgrain thong, no logos, no embellishment. On the other, they cost more than a return ticket to Mykonos in low season. The logic, if there is any, lies in the Olsen twins’ brand philosophy, minimalism so precise and materials so refined that simplicity becomes an art form.

The Row Dune grosgrain thong sandals Add to bag

The price is also the point. The Row trades in quiet luxury, the kind of clothing and accessories that look effortless but carry an implicit code: the wearer is part of the inner circle that recognises such things. For them, the Dune sandal is not a beach shoe, it’s a badge of taste, the most discreet form of one upmanship.

Celebrity appearances have done their part to propel the Dune into the spotlight. Jonathan Bailey wore them to a photocall, Jennifer Lawrence paired them with cut off denim, Dakota Johnson strolled in them as if they were the most natural choice in the world. Kendall Jenner, Elizabeth Olsen, even Mary Kate herself have been spotted in the style. Each sighting reinforces the idea that this isn’t just footwear, it’s membership into a club where price tags are invisible but understood.

That the flip flop has become fashion’s focal point is telling. In a year where comfort and minimalism are competing with maximalist runway theatrics, luxury houses from Balenciaga to Miu Miu have embraced the most casual of silhouettes. The Dune is the purest version of this shift: a design with no design, elevated through context, scarcity, and narrative.

And so, a style once synonymous with budget holidaywear now occupies the front row of the style conversation. Whether you find that absurd or inspired probably depends on your position in the hierarchy of fashion’s inside jokes. But one thing is certain, if the flip flop can be reborn as a £670 icon, nothing in the fashion lexicon is safe from reinvention.