Margaret Qualley arrived at the London premiere of The Dog Stars in a black Chanel gown, but much of the attention quickly moved several feet lower.
The actress wore the fashion house’s viral soleless shoes, a deliberately minimal design that leaves the toes, ball of the foot and most of the sole completely exposed. PEOPLE reported that Qualley’s black pair consisted primarily of a small heel section and thin ties wrapped around her feet and ankles.
The effect makes the wearer appear almost barefoot from the front. Qualley paired the shoes with a black V-neck Chanel gown covered in textured fringe, keeping the rest of her styling restrained with minimal jewelry, loose waves and dark polish on both her fingernails and toenails.
The footwear had already become one of the most talked-about pieces from Matthieu Blazy’s first Chanel Cruise collection months before Qualley wore it in London. Her Aug. 20 appearance offered a particularly clear look at how the intentionally incomplete design translates from a seaside fashion show to a major movie premiere.
The Chanel Shoes Cover the Heel but Almost Nothing Else
Calling the shoes sandals almost makes them sound more conventional than they are. Entertainment Weekly described the footwear as little more than a heel cap secured by narrow straps, leaving the toes and soles exposed and creating the appearance that Qualley was walking barefoot.
Her black pair featured Chanel’s interlocking double-C logo on the heel section, with two thin cords wrapping across and around her feet. Versions of the design appeared in black, gold and silver in the Cruise collection.
That inversion is largely why the shoes attracted so much attention when they debuted. The questions surrounding them were as practical as they were aesthetic: a shoe with no conventional sole leaves most of the wearer’s foot in direct contact with whatever surface lies underneath. Qualley, a longtime Chanel ambassador, nevertheless committed fully to the look on the Dog Stars carpet.
The ‘Barefoot’ Design Started With Chanel’s Biarritz Cruise Collection
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Blazy introduced the shoes as part of Chanel’s Cruise 2026/27 collection in Biarritz on April 28. It was his first Cruise collection for the house. Chanel’s official presentation explains that Gabrielle Chanel opened a couture house in the French seaside town in 1915, bringing together a boutique, ateliers, salons and an apartment years before establishing the house’s famous Rue Cambon identity in Paris.
“By showing Matthieu Blazy’s first CHANEL Cruise collection in Biarritz, the House pays tribute to where it all began,” Chanel says of the location. The collection itself deliberately blurred the line between polished Chanel codes and life by the water. The house described it as a progression in which “the salon slips into the beach,” incorporating flowing silk, raffia, washed cotton and clothes designed to move more freely.
Against that backdrop, the nearly shoeless footwear had an obvious visual logic. Bare feet on the Basque coast could function as part of the collection’s larger move from formal interiors toward the beach.
Qualley Wore the Look for ‘The Dog Stars’ World Premiere
Qualley joined costars Jacob Elordi, Josh Brolin, Guy Pearce and Benedict Wong on the carpet. The ensemble also includes Allison Janney. Qualley plays Cima in the post-apocalyptic thriller, which follows Hig, a young pilot played by Elordi, who has survived a devastating pandemic and built an isolated life with survivalist Bangley, played by Brolin.
A mysterious radio transmission eventually pushes Hig beyond the relative safety of their Colorado airfield in search of other people. The movie is adapted from Peter Heller’s 2012 novel, with Mark L. Smith writing the screenplay. 20th Century Studios describes the story as one in which “survival is instinct, but humanity is a choice.”
Scott told Reuters at the London premiere that he was attracted to the optimism running through Smith’s screenplay rather than treating the post-apocalyptic setting simply as another bleak survival story. The Dog Stars opens in U.S. theaters on Aug. 28.