Margaret Qualley gave one of Chanel's most debated designs its first real-world test on August 20, 2026, when she arrived at the London premiere of Ridley Scott's "The Dog Stars" wearing the house's so-called barefoot sandals. The premiere, held at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square and co-attended by co-star Jacob Elordi, marked the design's move from runway concept to red-carpet reality.
The sandals are part of Matthieu Blazy's Cruise 2027 collection for Chanel, which he unveiled in Biarritz in April 2026. Rather than a conventional shoe, the design reduces footwear to its barest components: a small leather heel cap stamped with the interlocking CC logo, connected to the foot by thin ankle straps. The toes, arches and soles remain fully exposed, creating the illusion that the wearer is walking barefoot. Blazy has described the pieces as sitting somewhere between footwear and jewelry, part of a collection that drew on Biarritz's coastal setting and the image of a woman emerging from the sea.
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Qualley paired the sandals with a black Chanel midi dress from the same collection, featuring a plunging V-neck, cap sleeves and cascading circular fringe that moved with each step. She wore her hair loose and finished the look with dark polish on her toes, a deliberate choice that kept attention on the exposed feet rather than diverting from them. Stylist Danielle Goldberg oversaw the look.
The moment landed at a specific point in the design's public life. Since Blazy showed the sandals on the runway in April, they have circulated widely online as an extreme example of minimalist footwear, but had not previously been worn by a major celebrity on a red carpet. Chanel has not made the style available for retail purchase, and it appears to remain reserved for select clients and campaign appearances. That scarcity, combined with the visual jolt of a shoe that shows almost the entire foot, made Qualley's choice notable regardless of the surrounding film press.
Public reaction to the look was mixed, according to social media commentary cited by multiple outlets, with some praising the boldness of the styling and others questioning the practicality of walking a public street in a design with no sole. Coverage also connected the moment to a longer pattern of red-carpet footwear rebellion, including Julia Roberts's barefoot walk at Cannes in 2016 and Kristen Stewart removing her heels mid-carpet at the same festival in 2018. Qualley's version differs from those moments in one key respect: it was designed to look barefoot rather than resulting from stars discarding conventional shoes.
Qualley has a longstanding relationship with Chanel, having previously walked in the brand's runway shows and served as a face for the house. That history places her debut of the sandals within a recognizable pattern of Chanel using its ambassadors to introduce its more conceptual pieces to a wider audience, ahead of any formal retail rollout. Additional styling details reported for the appearance, including specific jewelry pieces, could not be independently confirmed at time of publication.
