Margaret Qualley Wears Chanel’s Viral Barefoot Shoes at The Dog Stars London Premiere

Margaret Qualley has once again proved that a red-carpet appearance can become a fashion conversation all on its own. At the London world premiere of The Dog Stars on August 20, 2026, the 31-year-old actress stepped onto the red carpet in a dramatic black Chanel look, but it was not the dress that generated the biggest reaction. Instead, all eyes quickly moved downward to her extraordinary pair of Chanel “barefoot” shoes—one of the most talked-about and controversial footwear designs from the fashion house’s Resort 2027 collection.

The unusual Chanel shoes, designed by Chanel creative director Matthieu Blazy, appear at first glance to be almost no shoes at all. Rather than covering the foot with a traditional upper or resting on a conventional sole, the design consists essentially of a heel cap secured around the foot with delicate straps, leaving the toes, arches and much of the sole completely exposed. The result is an optical illusion: the wearer appears to be walking barefoot while still technically wearing a highly engineered luxury shoe.

Qualley’s decision to wear the design at the London premiere of The Dog Stars was significant because the Chanel barefoot shoes had already become one of the most polarizing fashion pieces of 2026. When they appeared on Chanel’s Cruise 2027 runway in Biarritz in April, fashion audiences immediately began debating whether the experimental footwear was brilliant, bizarre, impractical or all three at once.

Now, with Margaret Qualley becoming one of the first major celebrities to take Chanel’s controversial “barefoot heel cap” from the runway to a major red carpet, the design has entered a new phase of its fashion life.

August 21, 2026 | 7:45 pm