CROCS might be the ugliest footwear ever created, but the cumbersome clogs are about to get the fashion industry’s seal of approval. Two “very high-profile designers”, one British, one Italian, have approached their maker and will be collaborating on a joint venture in the next few months.

While Dick Wisjman, managing director of Crocs Inc in Europe, refused to be drawn on who the designers are, the mind boggles at the possibility of tartan Crocs by Alexander McQueen, who has already designed trainers for Puma, or leopard print Crocs by Roberto Cavalli.

Named after the reptile’s snout they resemble, Crocs have become a global phenomenon, with an estimated six million pairs sold last year. Among the celebrities photographed wearing them are Al Pacino and Teri Hacher, and while they might be about as stylish as a pac-a-mac, wearers claim that they are incredibly comfortable because the unique resin moulds to the foot. Wisjman said that the shoes were a talking point — “when you wear them you get noticed” — although perhaps for the wrong reasons.

Karen Stirgwolf, who runs Stella b, a high fashion shoe shop in East Dulwich, South London, said: “Everyone wants Crocs because celebrities have them. They are one of our biggest sellers and we keep repeat ordering.

“Once, when our delivery hadn’t arrived, I had to send my husband to buy all a nearby shops’s stock, pretending he was hosting a Crocs party.”

Crocs Inc, which is based in Colorado, began making the shoes in 2002, after setting out to create the perfect boat shoe. Revenues for the quarter ending June 2006 rose 231.8 per cent to $85.6 million (£45.6 million) compared with revenues for the same quarter last year.

They became available in Europe in 2005, but the craze only took off in Britain this summer, which is consistent with the country’s ignominious record of embracing celebrity-endorsed summer footwear trends, regardless of price or elegance. In the past few years British shoppers have fallen for the Ugg boot, Haviana flip-flops, Scholl shoes and brightly coloured wellies.

It does not look like Crocs will disappear with the hot weather, especially now that the big designers are interested.

Mr Wisjman said that Crocs were popular in Scandanavia, even in cold weather, when people wear them indoors with socks. With many British retailers still ordering the shoes in large quantities, the new footwear faux pas could be, not socks and sandals, but socks and Crocs.

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