EMMA JOHNSON
EMERGING FROM LOCKDOWN IS SOLE-DESTROYING
IT was just a pair of wedges. A lovely tan, two-strap espadrille with gold hardware, to be exact.
It was just a short walk from the car to the restaurant and yet, after just a few moments, I was close to tears as both of my feet burned in pain.
I am not sure what was hurting more – the soles from having to grip tightly to the shoes as my entire bodyweight tipped forward at an unnatural angle, the strap going across my toes that rubbed with every step, or the tie around my ankle which threatened to break the skin at any moment.
I hear you: ‘So your shoes hurt... So what? Stop being so vain and wear something more comfortable’.
Parking for a moment that my tea dress/tan wedges combo was very much ‘a look’, shoes have always been my thing.
I have spent my life forcing my size eights into all manner of fabulous footwear just because I loved the way a pair looked, never giving a second thought to how they felt on.
I have withstood constrictive court shoes, killer heels and straps that threatened to cut the blood supply off at my ankles and lived to tell the tale.
And yet here I was, less than half an hour into my postlockdown lunch date and seriously considering picking up a pair of flip flops from Primark. No offence to Primark... What had become of me? Has spending the best part of a year hibernating at home with my trotters snuggled into slippers or laced into trainers sent me soft?
But this was only half of the problem. Just days earlier I had taken delivery of a pair of gorgeous gold sandals – in my size, might I add – only to find I couldn’t squeeze my feet into them, no matter how much I wriggled and twisted.
I gazed longingly at my rows of high heels lined up in pairs in the bottom of my wardrobe. Would I ever be able to wear them again? Had I lost the ability to suffer for fashion?
Were my sexy shoe days over? Was I destined to spend the rest of my life in flatties and trainers?
Had the time come for me to consider the podiatric benefits of Birkenstocks, perhaps?
Then I saw these babies in the window at Office and my heart skipped a beat. Pass me the blister plasters. This girl is not ready to be brought to heel just yet...
■ For the second time in two years, fashion’s biggest night, the Costume Institute Gala – better known as the Met Gala – was cancelled this month due to Covid. However we’re promised not one but two parties to celebrate the Costume Institute’s 2021 exhibition, In America: A Lexicon of Fashion, with the first on September 13.
Along with the likes of Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein and Tom Ford, it is hard to imagine they will not pay significant tribute to Roy Halston Frowick.
Better known as Halston, he is the most successful and iconic American designer you have never heard of.
If that is the case, I suggest you rectify that by tuning into Netflix’s eponymous series.
It sees Ewan McGregor in the lead role as the Iowan farmboy who went from putting a pillbox hat on Jackie Kennedy to dressing the likes of Liza Minnelli for New York’s legendary Studio 54, only to lose everything, including the rights to his own name, thanks to an ill-judged billion-dollar deal and a lot of drugs.
I guarantee it is the most glamorous five hours you’ll have without leaving your sofa.