Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.
A thing I take immense pleasure in is actively choosing to sit out trends. To just, like, skip one. It’s basically the same as pretending it doesn’t really exist. It’s easy! Oh, is everyone buying lots of adorable gold stacking rings? That’s cool, but my fingers are essentially the color and girth of uncooked hot dogs, so I’d rather not draw any more attention to them.
And it applies to more than just fashion. The “Damn, Daniel” meme? Highly uninteresting to me, so I just continued scrolling every time a new iteration popped up on my Instagram feed. There is no way to express how satisfying this is, and I recommend you apply it to all areas of your life.
But the same thing nearly happened when, about two or three years ago, everyone was buying all-white sneakers. They looked cool on other people, but since they just didn’t naturally vibe with my aesthetic, I was all prepared to sit this one out. And then I walked into the new Doc Martens store in Williamsburg.
Let me begin by saying the 1461 Mono is not a sneaker. Rather, it’s a leather oxford shoe that, if someone was quickly walking by you and happened to glance at your feet, their brain would unconsciously — and wrongly — identify them as sneakers.
And yet! These sneaker-looking non-sneakers pair much better than sneaker-sneakers with tights, a mini skirt, and a turtleneck, which is essentially my outfit for nine months out of the year. They’re also sturdy as hell and have walked me through both the hot garbage-covered and sewer-stained snow streets of New York City.
Even if it means I didn’t get the pleasure of sitting out the white sneaker trend entirely, that’s okay. I’ll just skip the whole furry heels thing instead.