THI IS THE SUMMER OF ESPADRILLES
THe great thing about espadrilles,’ says a well-connected friend who wore a pair to a royal wedding, ‘is that you can curtsy in them. the base gives you support, so there’s less wobble when you bow.’ the Spanish shoe is everywhere. at Wimbledon, Zara tindall wore a black pair. Lady Violet manners appeared at the Cartier Queen’s Cup Polo Final in a white pair. and the Countess of Wessex also chose white on a recent jaunt to Cyprus.
almost every woman in the Spanish royal family has recently stepped out in these shoes, including Queen Letizia and the teenage Princesses Leonor and Sofia.
the Duchess of Cambridge is barely out of them: last month at an event in Cambridgeshire, she kicked a football while wearing nude espadrilles.
During the summer, the braided shoe is a staple for elegant women at events such as polo matches or the races, where the wedge heel spares them from sinking into the grass. But this year, with the social scene in full swing for the first time since the start of the pandemic, they’re more prevalent than ever.
Net-a-Porter says its espadrille sales are up by more than 50 per cent compared with last year. You could say it’s the season of the Yes-padrille.
the most authentic brand is Castaner, the Spanish line founded in 1927, which is worn by royals around the world and sold by Net-a-Porter and Selfridges. But other companies are following suit. this summer, marks & Spencer is selling a £29.50 hot-pink pair which are being snapped up by fashion editors. and British brand Holland Cooper, also worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, has launched an inaugural line of both flat and wedge versions.
At a Home Counties wedding last month, I counted five pairs of Penelope Chilvers espadrilles, pastel- coloured and tied with vibrant velvet ribbon. ‘everyone who was in any way stylish wore them this year at Henley Regatta,’ says one social sort. ‘they’re acceptable at the tennis and polo.’
‘I will die in my Castaners,’ says another devotee, who praises them for being practical and comfortable. ‘Unless they get wet at a Cornish wedding, because they get so heavy it’s like wearing diving boots.’
their elevated status is ironic for a shoe with such humble origins; much like jeans, the espadrille was originally functional workwear.
Created in 14th- century Spain, they were worn by soldiers and peasants; a cheap and relatively hardy shoe fashioned from esparto, the mediterranean grass used to make their plaited sole, and covered with canvas.
During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, they became a workingclass symbol worn by the resistance soldiers fighting the fascists.
they were then taken up by slightly less working-class types as they became fashionable.
Coco Chanel wore them on the French Riviera, accessorised with pearls and a sailor’s hat. a decade or so later, Lauren Bacall wore them opposite Humphrey Bogart in Key Largo, as did Grace Kelly in High Society. If you’re heading to Provence or Puglia this summer, you’ll find similar pairs in the supermarket for €10 a pop.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that the wedge version was invented, after designer Yves Saint Laurent came across a pair at a Parisian trade fair and asked Lorenzo and Isabel Castaner to design him one with a heel. the style took off, and today Castaner, still family- owned and run, sells 30,000 pairs in more than 50 countries annually.
Little wonder. espadrilles are not only supremely comfortable but breathable, so you avoid sweaty feet. Lacing the ribbon around your legs can make one feel as graceful as a ballerina.
‘they’re great for tall women,’ adds a female friend who’s over 6 ft, ‘because you can choose a lower wedge and still feel like a lady.’
For traipsing around the beach or heading to the pool, the flat ones, in my humble opinion, are also much chicer than clumpy Birkenstocks or flimsy flipflops — and if I can keep my toes hidden in the summer, I will (if only more people felt the same).
Not everyone’s convinced, though. ‘ they look like you’re wearing hay bales strapped to your feet,’ declares a friend.
and a couple of weeks ago, before a holiday to Sicily, I needed shoes I could wear in the evening and they seemed the obvious answer. In my head, I’d float around the Italian island wearing a pair with a wafty dress in the elegant manner of Penelope Cruz. But having tried on several versions, I decided that I could only get away with nude or very pale espadrilles, because tying dark ribbons around my ankles shortened my legs and made them look like tree trunks.
men tend not to be fans. ‘they’re much more aga than Victoria’s Secret. terribly homey and unsexy,’ grumbles one man-about-town.
Can’t please everyone. But I love my pale pink pair from L.K. Bennett, and will wear them all summer, until they’ve stretched and discoloured (in my experience, they tend to last only one season).
and do remember, if you’re ever invited to a royal wedding or perhaps a Buckingham Palace garden party, they really are much easier to curtsy in.