i am currently struggling with summer sandals so i'm just gonna dump all my findings in here if that's ok. omitting birkenstocks and the apiece apart sandals so beloved by charybdis because i generally assume people know about those things.
(~$100 USD) are surprisingly popular. i feel they are appreciated by people who want to go for minimalist-but-safely conventional. i flip between thinking "metallic heel is cool" and "metallic heel is garish". i definitely am not a fan of the buckle, so large. buckles are the worst part of sandal-shopping.
(~$40 USD) is an etsy shop that is basically ancient greek sandals for cheap. tons of different kinds. the cheap part of me is v. excited by these.
(~$60) have that nice kind of angled-sweepy-few-large-straps thing that i enjoy. i think i don't like delicate straps and i don't like having very many straps, it seems too visually taxing to process when i look at them.
(~$350 USD) i really love even though they're kind of awkward, and this is probably due to me repressing my prada creepers love for so many goddamn years. big fan of high espadrille soles/heels, and luckily for that aesthetic there are a lot of good cheap/mall-brand/high street options for espadrille wedges. not that many flat espadrille platforms, though.
(~$whatever it takes to fly to athens + sandal cost) are another option in the ancient-greek-sandals-y category except these are 150% more greek if you want to be snobby about it. hand-made and custom-fitted. they even have adorable greek names (aeolian left, thebes right)
are a nice reminder that charlotte olympia can do other cute whimsical stuff besides cat flats. i'm so excited for these but haven't found that many pictures of people wearing them.