Sneakers Vs. Stilettos
When it comes to the shoe of the season, designers are divided. At Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello showed sexy leather shorts and microminis with strappy stilettos. Meanwhile, at Valentino, Pierpaolo Piccioli anchored long, flowy evening dresses with je
If you want to take the temperature of the fashion world this spring, follow the shoes. I guarantee you’ll discover things our mothers never would have dreamed of, even after three martinis.When designers aren’t conjuring hallucinogenic sneaker mash-ups (a ballet–hightop hybrid at Marco de Vincenzo), they’re doing delectable things to stilettos (a Princess Diana– inspired pump wrapped in plastic, courtesy of Jimmy Choo and Off-White). And who, by the way, would have imagined Choo and Off-White in the same showroom, let alone on the same shoe?
Come to think of it, who would have bet on sneakers and stilettos sharing the stage? But again and again—and at two standout shows, Louis Vuitton and Loewe, in particular—they did. At Vuitton, Nicolas Ghesquière used chunky high-performance, high-luxe sneakers as a youthful urban counterpoint to immaculate 18th-century-style brocade frock coats. Call it the anti-objectification approach. But just when you thought you knew where this was all going, he threw in a pair of high-heeled bondage sandals with a jewelled halter-neck evening dress. Jonathan Anderson’s what-hashe-been-smoking curly-toed Moroccan-souk sneakers for Loewe ensured that his classic shirtdresses looked anything but predictable—but so did his frilled high-heeled ankle boots.And don’t think that Miuccia Prada, who likes to view the world from atop precariously high platforms, is sitting this one out. In her show, she paired tailored coats, skinny skirts, and shorts with the dinkiest kitten heel, pointy-toed oxfords, or a kind of Mary Jane sneaker (I’m not making up this hybrid, I promise) with sporty kneesocks.
This is both weird and great. It’s not only that designers have finally hit on a way to make 1980s nostalgia look modern (short skirts, high waists and big shoulders have all been run through a high-gloss, athletically-tinged filter, and they look fabulous with a spike heel); it’s also an affirmation of the different waves a woman can catch, depending on her mood. Shoes, you see, are no longer merely status symbols—that’s so 2008 to 2014. Now they’re a declaration of lifestyle and independence, with a higher degree of potency.
Of course, many women still play their shoe game two ways.“Once you’ve tasted comfort, it’s hard to give it up,” says Sandra Choi, Creative Director of Jimmy Choo, the spiritual home of the five-inch heel.“But there are still times when I reach for my heels, like every time I go into a meeting. It’s not just because I’m short; it’s an etiquette thing.” Outside the boardroom, Choi likes to ground her floral Preen frocks and trouser suits with a springy, run-around white sneaker—a look that was seen on many spring runways. But there are no hard-and-fast rules.The timeless way to wear heels, paradoxically, is to take the film-noir approach:With pencil skirts and trousers, or, more vampishly, with a mannish blazer. At Saint Laurent, Anthony Vaccarello styled his feather-sprouting, barely there thong stiletto sandals with leather shorts, teeny tuxedo dresses, and thinly veiled nipples. But the sandals would have looked just as strong with an ethereal dress.
The best strategy is to keep an open mind, with no options off the table. Magda
Butrym’s gold-trimmed
black stiletto mules with patent leather Isa Arfen pants? Proenza Schouler’s ruffled kitten heel with a knife-pleated skirt and matching bomber? Vuitton sneakers with a ball gown? Game on.
But this isn’t really about sneakers versus stilettos. It’s about sneakers and stilettos. Hell, even Melania Trump switches things up: Hurricane stilettos one day, Stan Smiths the next. This is new. Once upon a time, women who wore sneakers to work tended to live in a different part of town than women who wore four-and-a-half-inch heels—and looked as though they were from another planet. Today, they’re often the same woman. Take Victoria Beckham, who once famously said that she only ever wore sneakers in the gym (and she told me she never went to the gym).
Now guess what? She’s collaborating on a Reebok collection, launching later this year. Beckham knows a zeitgeist when she sees one. “I have long incorporated sportswear into my wardrobe,” Beckham has declared. That hasn’t stopped her from including the sparkliest silver, lavender and jade stiletto pumps in her spring collection, which she teamed with sexy-secretary semi-sheer pastel pencil skirts. She also used them to add a pop of colour to black dresses the way you or I might use earrings.
Then there’s Donatella Versace, who told me that one of the things she was most excited about (this was a week before her show with the original supes) was hiring former Yeezy designer–Kanye West protégé Salehe Bembury, a sneakers nerd whose footwear prototypes are giving Versace goose bumps. And, okay, she was wearing five-and-a-half-inch platform sandals (with a sporty pleated Versus midiskirt), but that only illustrates how women are straddling both shoe worlds. “Women who once thought of sneakers as too ugly or too casual to wear outside an exercise class have realised that they just haven’t found their sneaker tribe,” says Natalie Kingham, the Buying Director at MatchesFashion.com.
If Kingham lost you at tribe, here’s a crib sheet for discovering yours— School Mums do Golden Goose Superstars; Fashion Pioneers stake out Balenciaga’s Speed sock-boot-trainer; and Minimalists go for basic all-white leather sneakers from Céline or Stan Smiths from Adidas (the ones that, when they were reissued in 2014, kick-started the whole idea that sneakers could be sleek and smart).
These days, there’s a sneaker for every occasion: The embellished cocktail sneaker (Prada, Dior, Alaïa and Miu Miu); the office sneaker (Alexander McQueen’s exaggerated-sole velvet sneakers with snakeskin trim); the woman-of-contradictions sneaker (Gucci’s rainbow platforms). I’ve even seen my first bridal sneaker, crystal-buckled white leather Roger Viviers. The second sighting? The crystal-encrusted silver-and-gold Nikes that Serena Williams wore to her wedding reception last November.
At the same time, heels are becoming more comfortable.At Balenciaga, Demna Gvasalia is still pushing stretchy sock boots and ruched silk pumps. Manolo Blahnik has shaved a sliver off his heels—flats account for a quarter of the company’s sales—and two-inch heels are flying off the shelves too because he’s making them look as seductive as a shoe can possibly be. With fashion synchronicity, both Blahnik and Choi have been working on stilettos that flare ever so slightly at the bottom, and the extra sense of balance is striking.And Net-a-Porter Group’s Retail Fashion Director Lisa Aiken says the “vintage kitten heel”—an adorable little button that provides just enough elevation to change the curve of the leg—“is seriously overperforming for spring.” Other standout sellers at NAP include Gianvito Rossi’s satin slides and Tabitha Simmons’ silk Mary
Janes. Long live both: Comfort and va-va-voom in one irresistible package. This is progress.As Choi notes,
“Women still want glamour.The difference is that five years ago, we were trying to do it all the time.
Now, we give ourselves a break.” ■
Lisa Armstrong is Fashion Director of The Telegraph.