Flip-flop fever

Text by Liza V. Macalandag

Now we’re flaunting our flip-flops, like the island people that we are.

The good ole comfy tsinelas (or swalu in some parts of the island) is making a renaissance of sorts not just in our lovely island but elsewhere in the world.

Gone are the days when the slippered walk the streets with toes curled down in shame. Slippers, the enduring footwear for the casual and laid-back, the ordinary people, are coming out to the streets, trendy malls, exclusive hotel lobbies and even the red carpet - with pride (and fervor).

The culprit to this tsinelas fashion revolution? Havaianas (ah-vai-yah-nas), not only considered the “Best Rubber Flip-flops in the World” but the company that brought the cool back to flip-flops, brought to us by the coolest people in the world, (nope, not us, Pinoys) the Brazilians.

Havaianas transformed the perception of slippers, altogether. Although, a good peducure would definitely matter a lot, still, the brand made it possible for people to wear slippers with pride.

Havaianas is Portuguese for Hawaians because of the laid-back island culture that inspired the Brazilians designers way back in the 1960s, which for decades has also been the choice footwear for most Brazilians, from the Amazon natives to the stylish Sao Paulo elite. From Brazil, the Havaianas fever spread like global warming to the rest of the world.

Havaianas had people flipping over flip-flops that most designer brands now have flip-flop lines of their own.

And of course like every fashion explosion, it spawned cheap rip-off’s. So now the flip-flop fashion is not only confined to the moneyed but the indigents as well. (Buy a regular pair of Havaianas in the Chocolate Factory. Splurge P800-P1000+. Buy a rip-off in Agora, or kilid sa Agora. You dish out P40.)

Which is exactly why people wear flip-flops, to live the simpler life. In the case of Havaianaticos (yes, fanatics are called thus), living casual and chic.