OPEN (TO) TOES
Could sandals replace sneakers as the shoe of 2019? It’s unlikely — but also worth noting that the latter barely made an appearance at New York’s shows and presentations.
Summer will forever be sandal season, but there was even more wiggle room for toes in spring ’19. From utilitarian flat styles to more feminine embellished heels, the shoes proliferated at New York Fashion Week.
Oscar de la Renta’s Laura Kim and Fernando Garcia showed travel-inspired raffia, tasseled and braided leather heels and even paired a few flats with their signature evening gowns.
Sies Marjan’s Sander Lak added a heavily buckled style to his mix of curved heels. Paul Andrew used hand-cut abalone shell on a pair of minimalist black leather strappy sandals, and Gabriela Hearst took a more playful approach to her stacked platforms with a bulbous curved sole outlined in white leather.
But the majority of the sandals shown in New York veered toward the more practical, and after a few seasons of Crocs and Birkenstocks, spring ’19 may be Teva’s turn in the “ugly”-shoe spotlight.
Hot on the heels of the Cottweiler men’s show in London in June, the brand partnered with Anna Sui, Collina Strada, Sandy Liang and Tome for different iterations of its classic nylon strap. But its collaboration with rising brand Area won for best interpretation, using a beaded fringe embellishment on the two front straps for a cool and almost elegant look.
Other brands like Nanushka and Boss showed their own versions of the sporty sandal, the former with a cushioned silk wrap in magenta, the latter with a multiwrap upper in white and brown leather. Michael Kors, meanwhile, took on the foam sole and flatform styles in wacky prints like neon-green zebra stripe and a 1960s-esque yellow and green metallic brocade.