Pica~Picks: Sandals

Up first… these classy numbers from Paraboot.
They’re called the Pacific, and that’s exactly what they remind us of… the year was 1979, and we spent the entire summer strolling the picturesque beaches of Peru, the piquant taste of Pisco on our tongues, working on a small fishing vessel with a wizened old man called Hector by day and writing the most important novel of the twentieth century by night…
Of course, this never happened, but it can’t be denied that thanks to a potent combination of a classic design and top-of-the-range leather, these doozies stir powerful (albeit in our case, imagined) emotions indeed.

Meanwhile, there’s the Chacos Z1 Classic – which are Oi Polloi exclusives, by the way – living a life less ordinary, scrambling about on rocks and careening down wild rivers with Kevin Bacon and Meryl Streep.
Of course, you don’t have to be some Bear Grylls-style nutbag to appreciate these – with those cushioned outsoles and the highly-comfortable, patented ‘Z-strap’ systems, normal people such as yourself should find plenty of use for them as well.

There ain’t no point doing a list of sandals without the including the humble Birkenstock Arizona.
Considered by many to be the quintessential sandal, the Birkenstock Arizona has been looking after bunion-ridden feet since 1963, and even though humanity has made many strides in technology since then, there’s still few finer ways to keep proceedings relaxed than these.
And before you say anything… yes, we know they look mega with a pair of socks.

The Keen Uneek should stir a bit of debate among the scholars – some of you might categorise these as sandals, some of you might insist that they’re actually shoes, but there’s space aplenty in the bipartisan meeting room for us to all agree that they’re 100% mint.
The hues on these things are always something else, and this pair is no exception. If Agent Dale Cooper spent his free time larking by the lake, these would definitely be his novelty-sized cup of joe.

And these Fracap Sandals bring us nicely to that ‘unhinged New Hollywood filmmaker huffing hashish and losing their head in a seedy Tangiers watering hole’ vibe we’re so fond of.
Made in the pancetta-scented zone of Italy, they’re made from supple nubuck, and due to Fracap’s world-renowned rubber soles, the chance of slapstick-style pratfalls are slim-to-none.

Wrapping things up, there’s these Nerio Scratch sandals from Mephisto.
Detractors may argue these look conspicuously similar to another pair of sandals on this list, but since when was that a bad thing? In the same way that Lucio Fulci’s Zombi 2 is just as good as Dawn of the Dead, these really stand on their own, despite of their… errr… obvious inspiration.