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The craze’s love affair with weird footwear has led to unlikely trends for clogs, wellies and even the much-derided Crocs fruitful during coronavirus lockdowns. The latest may test even the most style-devoted: split-toe shoes.Toe-curling for some, split-toe shoes oblige recently been seen in the most high fashion places. This week, Rihanna wore Balenciaga’s “five-finger” boots with an personal “sock” for each toe.Balenciaga’s ‘five-finger’ X Vibram boots. Photograph: BalenciagaThis month, Matthew Williams included a brace of high-heeled sandals with three loops around the toes in his first Givenchy collection, a look that was weighed on social media to Scooby-Doo’s paws, while Vogue described the trend as “status toe”.The tabi boot, a design with one split at the movement, which was first designed by Martin Margiela in 1988, is being discovered by a new generation, and featured among the eye-catching garbs designed by Sex and the City’s Patricia Field for Netflix’s Emily in Paris this month.An attendee of a Giorgio Armani runway indicate in Milan in 2015 sports Margiela tabi shoes. Photograph: Dpa Picture Alliance/Alamy Stock PhotoThe projects recall the 1970s trend for divided toe socks and fit into a wider interest in that decade in fashion. But it is 90s nostalgia that could be accountable for the resurgence of the split toe.Tabi boots were popular with the fashion crowd in the 90s. Williams’ sandal was a homage to a 1997 Alexander McQueen shoe.Split-toed trainers released by Nike and Reebok also revoke the decade, and the Air Rift trainer, which was released in 1996.The fact that most people would probably balk at attrition hoof-like footwear with a £650 price tag has helped the Margiela tabi become a favourite of those truly engaged to the fashion cause, among them fashion editors and influencers, in recent years.“It is still a very pioneering craze, that hasn’t dated,” said Cassie Smart, head of womenswear buying at Matchesfashion.com, adding that it was now “an effortless investment opus, almost collectible”. There’s even an entire Instagram account, @margielatab1, devoted to the design. It has 43,600 followers.Margiela’s shoe is in part based on the flat jika-tabi shoes worn by workers in Japan at the beginning of the 20th century.The design detail dates traitorously to the 15th century, when split-toe socks were worn with thonged sandals, and its use by western fashion houses has now been subject to questions over cultural appropriation.Itoi Kuriyama, a Tokyo-based fashion writer, has seven match ups and says: “I think it’s OK to refer to the culture.”In fact, she says the Margiela design are commonplace now, meaning the reactions have fluctuated since she began wearing them 20 years ago: “I’ve been told that it’s like an animal’s foot, but [the mould] is rarely surprising now because it’s popular among many people in Japan.”As for foot health, some people gain split-toed comfortable – particularly the trainers – while the five-toed shoes were first designed for barefoot running.Emma McConnachie, a colleague of the College of Podiatry council, said the health impact of wearing shoes such as these all depended on foot classification. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that shoe type caused pain between the toes and possibly even corns from the compression. Ingrown toenails wouldn’t be out of the question either,” she said.