Sole Good : For Summer, If the Funky and Chunky Shoes Fit, Wear ‘Em
After months of hesitation, are you about to abandon your classic pumps for that sexy, high-heel clog? That sandal with a platform as thick as a loaf of French bread? That cork-stacked wedge? Those elevated espadrilles? Those sneakers on heels? Or even those campy work boots? Are you nagged by second thoughts? Wondering if your feet will look too big? Too bold? Too sexist? Too young? Worried you might be purchasing a lethal weapon?
Fear not. Anything that isn’t chunky and funky isn’t considered much fun these days. All you need to know is how to use these shoes.
True, there are some treacherous platforms out there, but there are also many tamer versions.
And these shoes are not the sole property of the young. The right shoe, worn the right way, defies type-casting. As proof that there is something for everyone, consider that even the conservative house of Gucci has loafers on platform soles and a high-heel suede clog, which costs $185 and is so popular there is a waiting list stretching from Milan to Miami.
With any of the elevated styles, you seem taller and your legs look longer. And whether high or low, the new footwear offers the correct proportion for all the long summer skirts--straight and sexy or full and romantic--and all the pants--the cigarettes, the bells and the palazzos. It also adds new dimensions to such old favorites as shorts, jeans and leggings.
There is absolutely no reason to apologize for starting from the ground up. That’s how Maggie Barry, confessed shoe fiend and designer of hip, sexy clothing for Van Buren and Love Line, does it. “I always buy my shoes first. I think they put you in the mood. After you have them on, you can see what would look right with them.”
What looks wrong this summer “is anything too classic, too basic. It’s got to have something a little bit different, something a little askew,” she says. That could be “anything with a square toe or espadrilles with a lift, not flat.
“A lot of older women have great legs,” Barry observes. “They can pick out elegant as opposed to clumsy.”
Shelli Segal, designer of flowing, feminine dresses and sportswear for Laundry, says she likes “ ‘ugly’ shoes with soft, sheer romantic dresses. I like the contrast, the contradiction. They kill the sweetness of the dresses.
“On teens and women in their 20s, the dresses look great with big heavy boots,” she says. “I think the look is out of place for an older woman but it can still be a heavy shoe, just not as extreme.”
But at Na Na in Santa Monica, the “Poleclimber,” which looks like a combination utility boot and turn-of-the-century lace-up shoe, is worn by thirtysomething co-owner Nancy Kaufman--with pants, knee-length rompers and floral dresses. The $98 to $160 unisex boots have left Doc Martens in the dust, she says.
For Sam & Libby shoes, $42 sneakers on thick lug soles are moving briskly. Co-owner and co-designer Libby Edelman, 39, says she wears the mock athletic shoe with her “business suit”: narrow-legged cropped pants and a fitted jacket.
“Wearing them with jeans to walk the dog is the expected. I like to see the unexpected,” says Edelman, voicing a golden rule for teaming this summer’s shoes and clothing.
Some designer prices are as elevated as their platforms. But the marketplace is rife with more moderate entries, such as the Sam & Libby collection, priced $38 to $89 in the Beverly Center store.
Nathalie Marciano, who designs Charles David and Guess footwear, starts the summer collections with a $49 raffia wedge mule. At Sacha, there is a $79 gold-trimmed, black suede sling on a low platform that is considered a working woman’s shoe
Nine West offers a genteel, $84 lace-up boot-shoe for the woman who wants the attitude but not the bulk of a utility boot. And at Privilege there is an $88 copy of the Gucci clog--but no waiting list.
