Stash your stilettos and stomp into spring style!
YOU may have noticed every female under 35 wearing bovver boots with industrial rubber soles.
They’re practically compulsory for spring, but not for Us, in case you were getting ideas; this is strictly offlimits for the over-40s. There will be exceptions to the rule ( Helena Bonham Carter) but bruiser boots, like knicker-showing negligee dresses, are on the Looks Tryhard list.
So, what does a fashion-conscious woman do instead? She turns her attention to chunky loafers, of course. Equally on trend and every bit as stompy, but a lot more feminine and wearable.
If you don’t believe a clompy loafer is a shoe with potential, cast your mind back to the Nineties and the sudden craze for Patrick Cox Wannabe loafers. There were queues around the block for these.
With their chunky heel and wide toe, they were nothing like standard preppy loafers and overnight became the coolest and most wearable of shoes.
This season’s loafers are brasher and chunkier, but similar in spirit: a classic that’s been souped-up and made cool for this moment.
AT
PRAdA, loafers were a little like the Wannabe, but beefed up, with a fatter, higher heel, a chunky sole with sawtooth detail and heavy metal hardware across the toe. At Loewe, they were high and backless; at Mulberry, sky-blue mock croc with a splayed low heel, like something a dowager duchess might wear in a Wes Anderson film.
The message is, when worn with trousers or jeans, with midi-skirts or culottes, the new loafers add edge to your look. They can be as clompy or quirky as the mood takes you.
To my mind, heavy-tread loafers require a gazelle leg and a mini-skirt to show them off to full effect. But, for anyone tempted, there’s a tractorsoled, horsebit loafer by Uterque (£120, uterque.com). Office does a more restrained version (£59.99, office.co.uk).
What’s tempting is a chunky platform loafer (Gucci’s latest incarnation of the classic men’s style). Gucci has cornered the loafer market, giving us the fur-lined backless loafer, the squashed-back loafer, the starand-bees-embroidered loafer, to name a few.
Now it’s the turn of the Houdan loafer, which is chunky in a Seventies way, with a low platform, squared heel and a horsebit buckle. At £352.50 per shoe ( mytheresa.com) they are not for everyone, but they’re the gold standard: not too high ( 84 mm) or over the top, practical, comfortable and unmistakeably loafers.
Autograph at M&S does a good-looking, brown, highstack-heeled loafer, which is somewhere between the Houdan and Loewe’s mule (£65, marksandspencer.com).
If you want to dial down the chunkiness, you can take your cue from Tod’s, which does a tasselled, buckled flat loafer (£246, tods.com), or a brown pair with a double rubber sole (£294). While Office does a sturdy tassel design in black mock croc (£59, office.co.uk).
These new loafers should stand out, otherwise they lose their power to give whatever you are wearing teeth and flair. So, if you’d prefer to go for a lighter style, look for that extra something — this time, leopard print alone will not do it.
Top of the less clumpy styles that will get you noticed is Uterque’s cream, studembellished, horsebit loafers (£ 120, uterque.com), or its similarly Gucci-esque style in embossed bottle green (£99).
Russell & Bromley does a bubblegum-pink mock croc horsebit loafer (£245, russelland
bromley.co.uk), which could look fun with cropped jeans or a boilersuit.
At the most ladylike end of the scale there are retro loafer pumps with a low block-heel and a fringed tongue, such as the Penelope Chilvers design in metallic sea green (£239, penelopechilvers.com).
Or try Office’s silver version (£26, office.co.uk). These could be a smart buy; they’re elegant, silver goes with everything, and the heel will be perfect with summer dresses and trouser suits in the months to come.