Now’s the time for show-off shoes!
THERE are limited ways to find enjoyment in dressing in these boring days between winter and spring. It’s raining, it’s windy — is it about to cheer up?
After you’ve got your coat sorted out and a variety of scarves, what else is there to jolly a fashionloving woman as she sallies forth into daily battle?
Enter the art heel: a minor, yet amusingly diverting, shoe trend.
You can be sure it’s part of the fashion pack’s plans as they attack the show season. Art heels have already been spotted beside the London catwalks and will soon be trudging the well-worn route through Milan and Paris until March.
There have been long years of suffering in silence in skyhigh stilettos with a handbag f ull of Compeed bli s t er plasters. For a while, there was the trainer takeover, a period of easy walking when it was fashion law to wear super-low casuals with practically everything — soon gone.
But now comes the blissful compromise in the shape of the all- singing, all- dancing (should you wish) block heel.
The showcased foot has been in the spotlight since everything became midi-length — trousers, as well as skirts — and now, midi-heels have followed suit, too.
This has elicited a flurry of activity among designers as they rush to vamp up what used to be thought of as a strictly librarian style.
The solution, hit on by the likes of Miu Miu and Nicholas Kirkwood, is to turn them into mini works of art. ALL
manner of stuff has been going on: heels faceted like metallic sculptures or carved from clear plastic, smotherings of glitter and pearls, flared shapes, multi- coloured leather and suede patchworks.
In a way, the heel has become a new kind of jewellery.
Personally, I would always go for the arty block heel, rather than the new generation of kitten heels, which you will also have noticed springing up all over the place.
I’ve got nothing against a mini-stiletto (though they are nearly as treacherous on wet pavements as their taller sisters), but there’s far more mileage to be had from a decorative block heel.
They’re wearable, but just a little bit crazy-looking, which is why you will see so many fashion editors sitting at shows twirling their blocky art heels at each other.
Never has sensibly low been so highly fashionable.
The High Street has been quick to back this one, too.
The Justify Fringe Loafer (was £69, now £20, topshop.
com) is a good example. If you have more to spend, look at the red-heeled Snaffle Tr i m Slingback (£175, russellandbromley.co.uk).
Boot versions are also an option — ideal for smoothing the gap between ankle and hemline i n this new midi length-obsessed world.
I particularly like the brown suede patchwork Clarissa ankle boots from Finery (£135, finerylondon.com).
Styling-wise, I’d put a block heel with a long coat and a pair of cropped trousers or a fluted midi-dress.
Also, if you’re wearing a really flashy, colourful pair of shoes, it’s best to tone everything else down by sticking to solid black or navy.
On this one, it’s a case of letting the shoes do the talking — and the walking.