WE HAVE LIFT- OFF

After years of sensible kitten heels and awkwardchic mules, designers have divined that what we really need in the footwear department is a shock to the system. Nothing delivers that like a pair of sky-high platforms—the height of desire at some point in the past decade and then a source of derision the next. This season, platforms are staging a monumental comeback. There they were, sexed up at Saint Laurent and gladiatorial at Rick Owens, while Marni and Simone Rocha showed versions that convey a whimsical, childlike charm.