BETTER THAN BAREFOOT
For summers, Ana Knowles had subjected her tiny toes to cramped, close quarters. Hers was the old-school dress code of a tireless Realtor: pumps or loafers with her tailored suits. But it was vanity, not office rules, that kept her toes imprisoned over the hot months.
Then she found herself bombarded: At every shoe and department store, on every pair of feet strolling by, the most beautiful strappy sandals, open-toe mules and sexy, heeled thongs. Some stood there simple and strappy. Others were festooned with bitty bows and beaded flowers.
“I normally don’t do sandals, because I don’t like my feet. But I’m trying to get better at it,” says the Long Beach mother of two grown children and sudden owner of several flirty models. “I never liked the platform sandals, but these days the combinations are a lot better--the colors, the styles. I like wearing them because they’re sexy looking. I’m even trying to tan my feet. I’ve asked the woman who does my pedicures to go brighter because it looks sexier. Well, why not? I’m 44!”
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At 44, 24 or 64, women are discovering that showing a little skin has never been more fun. “Women in L.A. love to show their toes,” says Kathie Harb of L.A.-based Chinese Laundry, which offers a closetful of thongs and sandals that are embellished, heeled and colored for summer. “We can sell open-toe shoes here all year long, especially refined looks which look great on feet.”
The trend reflects our general desire to dress with ease. No matter how casual or chic the model, slide into any one of the new shoe styles and you’re good to go--no buckles or laces or shoe horns to fuss with.
“There’s a lot more latitude with what women can wear to work,” says Paul Lommen, footwear merchant for San Francisco-based Bebe. As a result, he says, closed-toe shoes have been on a downswing for several seasons now, giving way to more open-toe options, including versatile styles that can go from work to play. “Sandals are no longer for just spring and summer,” he adds. “They are selling all year round now.”
In her mini-encyclopedia, “Shoes: A Celebration of Pumps, Sandals, Slippers & More” (Workman Publishing, 1996), author Linda O’Keefe suggests that “Eyes may be the windows to the soul, but shoes are the gateway to the psyche.”
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Today’s collective psyche is certainly in a state of undress. In recent months, we’ve become used to seeing every new starlet (and some not so new) bare it all for the cadre of men’s magazines. Then there are those conversation-provoking outfits--from Courtney Love in a shredded Christian Dior at the Golden Globes to Jennifer Lopez in that green chiffon Versace scarf at the Grammys. Suddenly, everyone and her mother was buzzing about the magic of toupee tape and eyelash glue on those precariously covered body parts.
It’s no wonder, then, that footwear would also shift into more revealing design.
“There is this definite movement toward that bareness,” notes Barbara Kasman of New York-based footwear designer Stuart Weitzman, who claims this season to have “more sandals and thongs than can outfit a Roman army.” Kasman refers to the recent winter trend that had stylish women from San Francisco to London ditching legwear and going bare in the name of fashion--never mind the goosebumps.
“It reflects a general trend toward femininity,” adds Kasman, “and that translates in the openness and the delicate details. The flowers happen to be a particularly strong motif in feminine styles. And then there’s that other trend--the wonderful, happy explosion of color.”
But as Darra Baker, director for the international trend forecasting group Promostyl West, says, it’s the sex appeal factor that has most women hooked. “It’s a way of being provocative without being too overtly sexy. It really opens up an outfit, no matter how conservative, from head to toe.”
One last footnote: Get thyself to a nail spa, pronto. Even the prettiest sandal can’t hide toes in need of a pedicure.
