9 Summer Dresses To Style With Flip Flops In The Heatwave

Elle

17-06-2025

No longer reserved for the beach and post-pedicure walks, the flip flop has found its rightful place alongside the ballet flat and loafer as a shoe that you can actually wear out for dinner, to a family gathering, and even, dare we say it, to the office.
If one was plotting the flip flop's sartorial ascent upon a graph, the line would peak in 2019, the year The Row launched their infamous Ginza shoe – a leather flip flop that, despite its £960 price tag, created quite the stir. Now a wardrobe staple, the leather flip flop is joined by Y2K-tinged jelly versions (see Ancient Greek Sandals' sell-out Saionara), as well as suede, snake-print and metallic styles.
The easiest (and most heatwave-proof) way to style flip flops is with your favourite summer dress. No muss, no fuss – just two great pieces paired with minimal effort. From nightie dresses and jelly shoes to 1990s midis and wedges, we have calculated nine failsafe summer-dress-and-flip-flop formulas to see you through this hot spell and beyond.
Flip flops feel immediately less casual when rendered in leather and paired with a chic shirt dress. Cos's slinky wrap style is ideal for holiday wear, while something in crisp cotton-poplin works well for (more flexible) office dress codes.
A nightie-inspired dress and a pair of coordinating jelly shoes will become your weekend uniform. If Only If's retro smock can be worn to bed, but we suggest taking it market-hopping, with Zara's chocolate-hued flip flops.
There's beauty in simplicity, as the pairing of a linen dress and leather flip flops proves. For something a little different, swap your favourite black dress for a style in tomato red, adding a slick of matching lipstick for evening.
Chemena Kamali's Chloé girl is spending the entire summer in the house's jelly sandals, which come in a variety of ice-cream shades. This ice blue pair looks especially wonderful teamed with an ethereal boho dress.
A pair of humble Havaianas immediately tempers the va-va-voom of a sheer dress. Layer Susamusa's lace style over a citrus slip or bikini, choosing flip flops in a matching or clashing colour.
When styling a sixties-style smock dress, swap out your go-to ballet pumps for flip flops in a metallic finish. These pre-loved Chanel flats are the perfect foil to It's 9pm's vintage-inspired mini.
Denim and flip flops are a timeless pairing. Opt for something a little more sophisticated in the way of Massimo Dutti's indigo-rinse dress and Arket's sleek, snake-print thong sandals.
Kitri's Anissa dress has a 1990s sensibility that's best complemented by a flip flop with a heel – either a barely-there kitten heel or something chunkier. Ancient Greek Sandals' trending Etheria wedges seem like the natural choice.
Flip flops oughtn't be reserved for the beach; in suede, they are perfectly appropriate for dressed-up occasions. A case in point: Marks & Spencer's square-toe sandals, which look impossible chic with Reiss's drop-waist dress.