--- title: 'Margaret Qualley’s Chanel Half-Shoes Revive Barefoot Carpet Talk' type: 'blog post' section: 'Away From Set' format: 'Editorial feature' standfirst: 'At The Dog Stars premiere in London, Margaret Qualley wore Chanel sandals that left much of the foot bare. The fuss fits a longer red-carpet history of stars, dress codes and shoes that refuse to behave.' author: 'Marcus Reid' published: '2026-08-25' updated: '2026-08-25' about_people: - 'Margaret Qualley' tags: - 'Margaret Qualley Chanel barefoot sandals' - 'The Dog Stars London premiere shoes' - 'controversial red carpet footwear moments' - 'celebrities barefoot on red carpet' - 'Julia Roberts Kristen Stewart Cannes bare feet' - 'Crocs and flip flops on red carpet' sources: - 'https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/margaret-qualley-rocks-controversial-shoe-trend-see-the-photos/ar-AA2aAzHl' - 'https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/margaret-qualley-barefoot-sandals-reactions/6539516/' - 'https://pagesix.com/2026/08/22/style/celebrities-who-walked-the-red-carpet-barefoot-margaret-qualley-kristen-stewart-and-more/' - 'https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/controversial-red-carpet-shoe-moments-112502452.html' - 'https://www.hellomagazine.com/hfm/' canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/blog/margaret-qualleys-chanel-half-shoes-revive-barefoot-carpet-talk' publisher: 'CinePixo' --- # Margaret Qualley’s Chanel Half-Shoes Revive Barefoot Carpet Talk *At The Dog Stars premiere in London, Margaret Qualley wore Chanel sandals that left much of the foot bare. The fuss fits a longer red-carpet history of stars, dress codes and shoes that refuse to behave.* By Marcus Reid, 2026-08-25 · Away From Set Margaret Qualley brought Chanel’s “shoeless shoes” from runway oddity to movie-premiere flash point at the world premiere of Ridley Scott’s upcoming film The Dog Stars in London on Aug. 20, NBC New York reported. That changed the life of the shoe, at least for a week: it was no longer a resort-collection dare in Biarritz, but a thing an actor had to wear while selling a film in front of cameras. For film readers, that matters because red carpets are part of the job now. They make images before anyone has seen a frame, and sometimes the smallest prop on the carpet is the one that runs away with the scene. ## Margaret Qualley Took Chanel’s Half-Shoe to The Dog Stars NBC New York reported that Qualley wore Chanel’s “shoeless shoes” with a black look at The Dog Stars premiere at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square. Page Six described the gown as black and embellished. Yahoo, in its fashion coverage, called the dress black, fringed and Chanel. The shoes did the unruly work. NBC New York reported that some online commenters liked the high-fashion look, while others said the sandals were not shoes at all. One person on X joked about “shrinkflation,” according to NBC New York, while another guessed Chanel might sell “the front part” next season. The same report also noted praise, including one X user calling the look chic. There is a comic unfairness in that. Qualley is promoting a Ridley Scott film, and the internet has taken a chair, leaned forward, and stared at her feet. But this is also part of a modern actor’s red-carpet bargain. A premiere asks for glamour, and glamour asks for risk. The person inside the outfit still has to stand there, smile, turn, and carry the thing as if it weighs nothing. ![Margaret Qualley during a photocall for the film "Honey Dont!" at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/590e78dd-400b-4ac7-ac9b-ec9159974a26.webp) *Photo: Gabriel Hutchinson · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_Qualley_at_the_2025_Cannes_Film_Festival_03.jpg)* ## Chanel’s Biarritz Sandals Made the Foot the Design The design had been waiting for its argument. NBC New York reported that the sandals debuted in April at a Chanel runway show in Biarritz, the French seaside resort city, under creative director Matthieu Blazy. Yahoo described the shoes as made of little more than a leather heel cap and thin straps, with no standard sole under the front of the foot, leaving the toes, arch and ball exposed. Page Six was blunt about the practical problem, saying the style covered only the heel and left the front of the foot exposed. That is the joke and the point. A heel can be a little machine. A sandal can be a promise. This one looks like a receipt for a shoe that has not fully arrived. Fashion often asks the body to finish the sentence. Here, it asks a lot of the foot. It asks the actor to trust the floor, the photographer line, and the red carpet itself. It also asks viewers to decide whether they are looking at elegance, nerve, or somebody’s expensive way of misplacing half a sandal. ![Margaret Qualley at Berlinale 2025](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/699e088a-42e4-4aee-802c-b46c4404ed23.webp) ![Ethan Hawke and Margaret Qualley at Berlinale 2025](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/c43fd502-ef57-4278-ad5d-b94a5a057d65.webp) *Photos: Elena Ternovaja · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) · [source 1](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_Qualley_at_Berlinale_2025.jpg), [source 2](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethan_Hawke_and_Margaret_Qualley,_2025.jpg)* ## Cannes Had Already Turned Bare Feet Into a Dress-Code Story Qualley did not invent the barefoot red carpet. Page Six traced earlier shoeless turns, including Cameron Diaz in 2003, when one of her stilettos broke before the Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle premiere and she posed without shoes. The outlet also reported that Zooey Deschanel removed strappy sandals partway through the London premiere of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in 2005. The Cannes examples gave the matter a sharper edge. Page Six reported that Julia Roberts went barefoot on the Cannes steps in 2016 amid attention around the festival’s reported ban on flats. Yahoo also tied Roberts’ barefoot Cannes moment to controversy over high-heel expectations at the festival. Page Six reported that Kristen Stewart removed her pumps mid-premiere at Cannes in 2018, two years after Roberts’ moment. The outlet said the festival later updated its dress code to allow “elegant shoes and sandals, with or without heels.” That is a small sentence with a lot of sore feet behind it. Red carpets are often treated as fantasy rooms, but they are also workplaces. A heel rule lands on the person who has to climb the stairs, pause for the flash, and pretend the evening is as effortless as the photograph. ![Margaret Qualley at Berlinale 2025](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/7493863f-4607-4d97-b461-e12aaf34096d.webp) ![Margaret Qualley at Golden Globes 2025](https://pokemon-dive.us-lax-4.linodeobjects.com/cinepixo/posts/2026/08/86337d50-2341-41f8-bfac-a9308efad9c0.webp) *Photos: Elena Ternovaja · [CC BY-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_Qualley_at_Berlinale_2025_(cropped).jpg); Rainey Qualley and Anthony Wilson · [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0) · [source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Margaret_Qualley_at_Golden_Globes_2025_by_Anthony_Wilson.jpg)* ## Crocs and Flip-Flops Made Comfort Part of the Carpet The red-carpet shoe fight has not only been about bare feet. Yahoo listed several recent comfort-first or oddball choices, including Jonathan Bailey wearing flip-flops with a The Row outfit at a London photocall for Jurassic World: Rebirth in 2025. Yahoo also reported that Jennifer Lawrence paired a red Dior gown with black flip-flops at Cannes in 2023, noting the shoes became a subject of talk because Cannes is so tied to formal dressing. Crocs have had their own carpet life. Yahoo reported that Brooke Shields wore bright yellow Crocs at the Tony Awards in 2024. It also reported that Michelle Yeoh wore bedazzled Siren Clogs from the Simone Rocha x Crocs collaboration at the Los Angeles premiere of Ne Zha II in 2025. These choices do not all mean the same thing. A broken stiletto is an accident. A Cannes barefoot walk can read as a reply to rules. A Croc on a formal carpet is a wink with a rubber sole. Chanel’s half-shoe is different again: it is not comfort exactly, and it is not rebellion in the old sense. It is a fashion house placing the argument on the body of a working actor. ## Doechii, Kesha and the Vulnerability of No Shoes Page Six reported that Kesha skipped footwear at the 2026 Grammys, wearing a feathered Atelier Biser gown. Yahoo reported that Doechii went barefoot at the 2026 Met Gala in a custom red wine-colored Marc Jacobs look. Doechii gave the cleanest account of what bare feet can mean. Page Six quoted her telling press at the Met Gala that it was “very comfortable, but also very vulnerable,” and that bare feet signified groundedness. Yahoo also reported that she wanted to feel grounded and comfortable. That word, vulnerable, does useful work here. Shoes are armor. They add height, finish a silhouette, and keep the world from touching you back. Take them away, or make them disappear from the front half of the foot, and the carpet becomes less abstract. There is the gown, the cameras, the studio machinery, the fashion house, the movie still waiting to meet its audience. And at the bottom of it all, there are toes on the floor. ## How this piece was made **Format:** Editorial feature ## In this piece - [Margaret Qualley](https://cinepixo.com/people/margaret-qualley) ## Sources - https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/margaret-qualley-rocks-controversial-shoe-trend-see-the-photos/ar-AA2aAzHl - https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/margaret-qualley-barefoot-sandals-reactions/6539516/ - https://pagesix.com/2026/08/22/style/celebrities-who-walked-the-red-carpet-barefoot-margaret-qualley-kristen-stewart-and-more/ - https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/celebrity/articles/controversial-red-carpet-shoe-moments-112502452.html - https://www.hellomagazine.com/hfm/ Every factual claim above is drawn from these. The reading of them is ours. Source: https://cinepixo.com/blog/margaret-qualleys-chanel-half-shoes-revive-barefoot-carpet-talk Written for CinePixo. Nothing on this page is imported prose.