During a recent editorial meeting, conversation turned to a pair of The Row flip-flops at the center of this week’s fashion discourse. Not because of any innovative design details, nor the famous women that have been photographed wearing them, but because they’re priced at $690.

The arts desk was bemused. The fashion desk less so. Because while the Dune Classics are expensive—and yes, perhaps egregiously so for an elevated-(ish) version of a thonged sandal–everything with a “luxury” label costs too much.

Dakota Johnson in Los Angeles.

Backgrid

So much so, in fact, that even some of the world’s wealthiest shoppers are turning away from high fashion and seeking value for money. Take, for example, Dakota Johnson, who was photographed yesterday afternoon strolling through Los Angeles in a well-worn kid’s T-shirt (purchased two years ago at The Row) with humble Birkenstocks.

If the Dune Classics are the latest example of fashion’s preoccupation with repackaging the pedestrian as ultra-premium–and this is nothing new, of course, given Saint Laurent was at one point selling cigarettes in the ’80s–Johnson’s Big Buckle Arizonas are perhaps the antidote: a rare and refreshing basic in a culture awash with exorbitant status symbols.