Found! The ONLY shoes you need this summer
NO NEED to tell any of you that it starts with the shoes. With Leo Varadkar and Justin Trudeau it was socks but earluer this month Rishi Sunak felt forced to apologise for wearing some box-fresh Adidas Sambas (white with navy flashes and a grey suede toecap) after his choice of footwear became a subject of debate.
Depending on where you stand he is either a middle-aged man trying to look down with the youth in the hot trainers and damaging it in the process, or he’s a natty dresser who appreciates that Sambas can make a boring ‘navy trousers and white shirt outfit’ look sharp. And that’s a trick we’re all familiar with. Sambas are unisex, of course, and I’ve been doing much the same thing with the exact same style for a while. Dressing up jeans; modernising a plain trouser suit; giving black trousers a stylish casual spin. Every woman needs a chic trainer and these are the best.
If you find the right shoe — one that’s on the fashion money and that suits you — you are twothirds of the way to creating a few looks that work perfectly.
I buy shoes that are spot on for the season the second I see them, knowing that whatever I end up wearing, the shoes will dictate the mood and let me keep everything else simple. This is when your wardrobe really works overtime for you: when that shirt dress looks great for work (with the block heel slingbacks); or feminine and fun for going out (with the silver sandals); or summer-weekend ready (with the flatbed sandals).
So, here are my pick of the shoes that will cover most bases from now into summer...
Silver slingbacks
IT DOESN’T have to be a kitten heel, but the shoe of the summer is shaping up to be lowish with a pointed or snip toe and some shade of shiny silver. A good option is Zara’s (€39.95, zara. com), but there are plenty to choose from including a good low style from M&S (€49, marks andspencer.com).
The beauty of this shoe is it looks as good with midi skirts and dresses, as it does with trousers of any length or shape and, being silver, has built-in evening/ party pizzazz. That’s not to say you can’t wear them in the day — you can and should. They look like they are made to be worn with navy tailoring. Go for a higher cut in the front.
Smart flat pumps
YOU’RE probably aware that ballerina pumps are back, including the ones that look like you’ve pinched them out of a ballet school locker — square-toed, satin and white.
No one is expecting you to wear these and a couple of months ago I was confident that the whole ballet pump thing should be avoided.
Still, there are few things neater than a simple pair of black ballet pumps with white trousers or jeans (this is a with-trousers only look for us). Jackie Onassis was wearing them well into middle age.
For my money, the balletstyle that works better on the 50pluses is slightly reworked to make it more like a sleek flat pump.
Top in this category are Arket’s snakeprint ballerinas, cut high on the foot with a square toe (€149, arket.com). They look more grown up than a classic ballerina, solve the problem of foot bulge and will instantly make any pair of jeans or trousers seem 25 per cent more chic.
Comfy high heels
THERE will be weddings and there will be parties, and what can we wear that will a) look glamorous and b) take care of our feet and backs. The time between slipping on those leglengthening sandals and walking like Dick Emery has narrowed dramatically in the past few years and now I like to wear a cushioned sliver of platform sole, both for leg-lengthening and comfort.
Boden has the perfect pair of summer event shoes in dull barely gold with a woven toe (€180, boden.eu) and they come in useful everyday tan, too.
Two-strap sandals
YES it’s not going away because it’s so comfortable and practical, but it is, arguably, getting better. The original Birkenstock buckled two-strap design is a fashion classic beloved of models and actresses (€100, birkenstock. com) and now there are plenty of tip-top, slightly more elegant variations on the High Street.
I love Zara’s black leather sandals with studs (£59.99) or the more casual whip-stitched, tan suede version.
Wearing them does mean revealing your toes, but it means you will also treat your toes.
RED-RAW skin, broken veins, adult breakouts that you thought you had left behind as a teenager — if this sounds like you, it could be that you are suffering from the skin condition rosacea.
And you’re not alone — rosacea is a bit of an Irish problem. We have one of the highest rates of rosacea sufferers in the world, with an esimated 10 per cent of the population here. It causes redness and irritation that can have an impact on self-confidence which becomes more of a problem than the redness itself. And although it is so commonplace, and particularly for the Irish ‘Celtic’ skin type, remarkably we still don’t know exactly what causes the condition. Some theories suggest it’s down to an autoimmune response to bacteria, while others point to a mite that we all have in our skin called Demodex — it’s been seen to occur in larger numbers on rosacea skin types than others.
But while there’s no answer as to what causes rosacea, there are ways to help yourself by understanding what causes flare ups for you and what is best to avoid.
Skin expert Eavanna Breen knows well how this condition affects self-confidence as she sees it in her clinic on a daily basis. She is responsible for tending to the skin of some of our top celebrities including Greg O’Shea, Thalia Heffernan, Erica Cody and Samantha Mumba.
So how do we know that we have rosacea and what are the things we can do to help ourselves?
‘Rosacea generally shows itself around the central panel of the face; down the nose and across the cheekbones,’ Eavanna says. ‘And it will present with one or more of the following symptoms: flushing, persistent redness, pustules, and papules, telangiectasia (in other words ‘thread veins’), dryness, burning, or stinging. Not pleasant!’
But not all redness means you have rosacea.
‘Don’t freak out if you’re displaying red cheeks, as this does not necessarily mean it’s rosacea,’ Eavanna says. ‘It’s important to have any symptoms sufficiently examined by a skin expert like myself, and have them diagnose the issue before considering any treatment.’
As with most skin disorders, people with rosacea can have
‘Rosacea shows itself around the face’s central panel’