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Make my toes curl
Reasons why Anna Pursglove is less than delighted at their return
that it hasn’t been cut to fit an actual human foot. In other words, it’s a temporary over-shoe. The footwear equivalent of the hairnet and with all the associated elegance. Avoid.
Now let us turn to the Mary Jane ballet flat, where I refer you to my previous comment about little girls going to see Frozen.
For some reason, already cognisant of the Mary Jane’s tendency to infantilise the wearer with its single strap, designers seem to lean further into the cutesy look, covering them in crystals or turning them out in pink. Frankly it’s hard to know what would toughen up a Mary Jane ballet flat. Maybe a print featuring the world’s deadliest assault weapons? Although that may not play well at Next.
Anyway, all prints are banished in the latest incarnation of the ballet flat because it’s made of mesh. Breathable, I suppose, but what of its pavement life? Remember the way your ballet flats used to hang over their flimsy soles, putting leather in direct contact with tarmac? Before the week of purchase was out, you’d have a series of
scars on the soft leather, which would swiftly become holes. If those are already holes – well, you get the point. And so to the aforementioned Frankenpump. If you haven’t seen one yet, then imagine a ballet flat slammed with great force into a clumpy trainer so they fuse and become one hideous monster. In the process, the shoe loses any elegance that may have been conferred by its ballet flat ancestry while simultaneously becoming deeply impractical as a trainer. I suppose they might give a slightly better
‘WE ALL THOUGHT WE LOOKED LIKE KATE MOSS. WE DID NOT’
‘toe off’, but it would be better still with the inclusion of laces.
So go on, build some time into your day to tie a shoelace. Call it mindful lacing. Just please don’t buy another pair of ballet flats. They say trends come back every 20 years, so if you manage to stay strong this year you won’t have to worry about them again until 2044.
And by then we’ll all be able to fly.
hen the pandemic ended, exciting things were predicted. We’d ditch our boring partners, burn our dreary leisurewear and find our dream career. We’d travel the world and dine out every night. Most of these rash imaginings never came to pass, but there was one big behavioural shift nobody saw coming: we started shopping in actual shops again.
The many forecasters who predicted that lockdown would mark a permanent rejection of bricks-and-mortar stores were wide of the mark. Rather than relishing the convenience of shopping online, it turned out that we missed touching fabrics, trying on clothes and interacting with sales assistants who could tell us whether blue was our colour or rather made us look as though we’d been brought back from the dead.
WThe retailers who pre-empted this shift back into real high-street stores now find themselves in an enviably strong position. Phase Eight, for example, is one of Britain’s unsung success stories, having opened 13 new stores in the UK last year. And it’s set to expand further, with more shops planned for the coming months.
Some labels that began life as online-only brands are also beginning to see the value of a more personal shopping experience. Digital-first fashion brand Albaray, launched by a team of former directors of Warehouse
Lockdown was expected to change the way we shop forever, but bricks-and-mortar businesses are enjoying a surprising resurgence, says Laura Craik
‘ONLINE-ONLY BRANDS ARE SEEING THE VALUE OF A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE’
in 2021, has branched out on to the high street with its first physical retail store, which opened in Chichester in December. Hobbs, too, has seven new locations confirmed for store opening this year, including East London’s Canary Wharf, Watford in Hertfordshire and Trafford in Manchester.
Customer service is something we all missed during the pandemic, and no one more so than the cautious shopper who would rather take her style cues from the friendly high street than the forbidding catwalk. ‘Our brand is warm and welcoming,’ says Phase Eight product director Sally Piasecki. ‘We have dedicated personal stylists, as well as product experts who can support and hopefully inspire.’
John Lewis reports a similar upturn, with footfall up three per cent year on year, ‘Especially on weekends,’ says communications manager Hannah
Doran. ‘That’s when we are seeing customers return to the shops for a day out.’
But if the store’s environment is important, so, too, is its location. Post-pandemic, upscale destination shopping centres have seen a surge in popularity, thanks to their convenient parking and thermostatically controlled environments, which allow visitors to leave their coats in the car and make an afternoon of it. Phase Eight has traditionally had a strong presence in affluent market towns – Cambridge, Harrogate, St Andrews. Piasecki says its current priority is shopping centres, with openings planned in Bristol, Kingston and Edinburgh, as well as its first standalone store in the Republic of Ireland: ‘We’ve seen shopping at the weekend become popular again. Customers go out for the day with their friends and have lunch.’
So, say farewell to online shopping from the sofa in your lockdown loungewear
– and long live the high street.