Fashion is in the midst of a swingeing change of proportions and garment-choice this autumn. It’s obvious which clothes are in favour: trousers and coats, blouses and jackets, knitwear and skirts – that is, separates, not dresses. This has been bruited as a “return” to minimalism and a great thing for a grown woman’s sanity. We’re promised we’ll be able to bound out looking effortlessly co-ordinated, while radiating dignity and competence. We will, but only, I’ve realised, after we’ve tackled the hellish confusion of this season’s heels.
“Effortless” is hardly the way to describe the search for footwear to match this season’s trousers and longer skirts. I discovered this after trotting off to Selfridges’s new gigantic shoe world (eight rooms, 11 individual branded boutiques, hundreds of shoes and boots to try on), where I imagined I’d be in danger of spending far more than I ought. An hour and a half later, I was back on Oxford Street, empty-handed, fuming over the fact that most footwear design hasn’t yet caught up with the leading edge of fashion.
All I gleaned from that wasted trip was the realisation that the monstrous platforms and rock-chick shoe-boots slavishly worn with the short dresses and leggings of the past few years are still endemic. Just looking at them makes me nauseous. Needless to say, they’re wrong with this season’s trousers and mid-calf skirts, which happens to be all I want to wear.
The stacked-heeled ankle boot, £60
Thrashing out what’s right has taken a hell of a time. This is due, partly, I admit, to the wrench it takes to break a fashion addiction built up over years: the plus side of elevated heels was feeling six inches taller and skinnier. When stepping into this season’s anti-platform, non-statement shoes, there’s that fear to conquer; with these new silhouettes, frumpier and dumpier must be circumnavigated.
Having scrutinised all the catwalk shows that featured trousers and longer skirts, I pulled out everything in my wardrobe that resembled them, plus all the shoes I’ve accumulated over 10 years. And now I have conclusions: when you whittle it down, there are two types of footwear necessary to make this season’s clothes viable – a pair of pointy stilettoes and some sort of block-heeled boots.
Trousers are the tricky part, because they come in three shapes:
1) Wide-legged. Footwear appears not to matter with these pants, because the point is that the hem covers the shoe, thus making it invisible, except when walking. That means you can take advantage of the old Seventies leg-lengthening illusion: high, stack-heeled boots or platforms, but roundish or squared in the toe, not pointed. You could also wear socks with an old pair of chunky sandals – the point is to cover and de-emphasise foot-awareness. (Study: 3.1 Phillip Lim, Marc Jacobs, Dries Van Noten.)
2) Boot-cut. This Nineties’ revival takes finessing. It needs streamlined, narrow-heeled boots with a slightly pointed toe, probably in suede. Frida Giannini at Gucci styled her revived boot-legs with open-toed sandals and black tights. (Study: Balmain, Gucci.)
3) Narrow-leg, cropped. For women who’ve been living in leggings, these slim trousers might seem the easiest segue into a new look. The key is to ditch those grotesque “statement” shoes and invest in pointed stilettos to wear to reveal chicly bared ankles. The most versatile and flattering height is around three inches, the über-ideal being a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s timeless spindly-heeled suede courts. Alternatively, there’s the rockabilly way to do it, as exemplified by Isabel Marant’s Fifties pointed courts with cropped jeans – how right they are is testified by the fact that they sold out by mid-August. (Study: Stella McCartney, Gucci, Isabel Marant.)
What to wear with new-length skirts:
1) The Fifties-look circle. The obvious companion for the belled, petticoated skirt is the “petite stiletto” or a 1.5-inch Louis heel with a point decorated with a bow. At the designer end, Tabitha Simmons and Giambattista Valli have mouth-watering evening options, and at the other, Marks & Spencer has a £15 patent version and New Look, one by Giles Deacon at £24.99. Close study of the Louis Vuitton pumps shows they, in fact, have a high- stacked heel rather than a stiletto. (Study: Prada, Louis Vuitton, Dries Van Noten.)
2) Below-knee A-line. A skirt with which both the pointed stiletto and the block-heeled boot work, thus side-stepping the frump issue. There are subtle differences within A-line, though. As a rule of thumb, if it’s bias-cut, sinuous, tending towards the Thirties, wear the stiletto. If it’s stiff and skewing Seventies, use the chunky-heeled boots.
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