Brand consulting agency founder Tara Khanmalek was strolling out of the Paris Metro this summer when she did a double take at a fellow commuter's Vibram FiveFingers shoes. Their owner had styled her pair—sneaker-flat-hiker hybrids with grippy soles and tiny compartments encasing each toe—with barrel-leg Pleats Please pants and an oversize tote. Khanmalek says she couldn't look away.
Some shoppers might consider the paw-forward style "ugly." Khanmalek found them "offensive in a delicious way." "I was definitely influenced to consider wearing them," she tells me.
