Ugg Boots Hit the Runway Again With Another High-Fashion Brand

Andrea Cheng

Updated Sat, January 20, 2018 at 8:13 PM UTC

For so long, Ugg has lived on the fringe of high fashion — even after a spring 2017 collaboration with Preen by Thornton Bregazzi that comprised lace-veiled, bow-tied platform sandals, a significant departure from the brand’s signature shapeless sheepskin boots. But now, after a couple of headline-rocking appearances at Paris Men’s Fashion Week, it looks as though Ugg is finally being embraced by the fashion elite.

It started when designer Glenn Martens of buzzy streetwear label Y/Project made over Ugg in his patented boot’s image: lengthening it to hit the thigh, slouching it to a dramatic degree and outsizing its overall silhouette. It immediately divided the internet.

And most recently, Ugg found its second key collaborator in Sacai, the Japanese luxury brand favored by fashion’s most influential street-style stars and editors. Designer Chitose Abe presented her fall ’18 ready-to-wear men’s collection and, in a surprising move, chose Ugg to complete her layered, utilitarian-meets-streetwear looks. In gray or camel brown, these Uggs weren’t manipulated to an unrecognizable extent — they stayed true to the original but truncated to a shin-high length, and styled with chunky knit socks pulled up the calf.

As it turns out, Ugg’s choice in men’s ready-to-wear partners is part of a bigger strategic move. “We are doing many things at the moment on a macro level — building our spring-summer business, men’s is incredibly important,” said Andrea O’Donnell, president of fashion lifestyle brands for Ugg holding company Deckers Brands, to WWD. “We want to protect what we have, which is a special classic franchise, but we are also doing a lot to focus and reimagine Ugg with a fashion spin.” Goal, achieved.

Don't Miss

Ugg Boots Hit the Runway Again With Another High-Fashion Brand

Recommended articles