It’s the end of winter, when we fell into a monotonous routine with our footwear choices. Rain-soaked days and storm-dominated weather meant sacrificing style for practicality, especially on chilly morning commutes.
The time to bust out of boots is here – or nearly here. With warmer weather on the horizon comes a myriad of new trends to dip your toes into.
Don’t be over-zealous – it’s not toe-baring season just yet. Instead, look to the recent fashion week show-goers for shoes that adapted to changeable, transitional weather as they stomped between shows – trading chunky boots for loafers and mules. Some did embrace open-toe styles, layered up with socks and tights, managing to combat the chill and still look chic.
Overall themes for the new season include colour and character.
Boots aren’t off the agenda for spring. Leaning into the 1970s sensibilities that informed the Celine and Etro catwalks, knee-high styles are a perfect complement to denim midis and floaty print dresses.
Continuing the retro aesthetic, the classic Mary Jane is one of the leading silhouettes for spring. It swung into favour on the catwalks of Marc Jacobs, Dries Van Noten and Maison Margiela, in stiletto-heeled, chunkier styles, and pointed toe flats.
Loafers have been elevated in height and sartorial sophistication. At Prada, Gucci and Fendi they came vintage-inspired with blocky heels, making them almost as comfortable as their flat counterparts.
Sandal choices varied. There’s the barely-there style, with dental-floss-thin straps wrapped diagonally across feet. There are grown-up flip-flops crafted in leather harking back to the 1990s with nano kitten heels. Comfortable, chunky, trekking sandals made a return from last season.
Offering a more contemporary take, square-toed shoes, which hit the runways last year, are set to find their feet this season; they’re on heeled mules, strappy stilettoes and ankle boots.
Embellishments are either tough or saccharine. Tory Burch and Cynthia Rowley sweetened up their shoe offerings with bows and frills.
In contrast, metal bedecked designs slunk down the runways of JW Anderson and Simone Rocha. Chain hardware threaded around the ankle or across the toe made it the detail du jour in shoe-land.
If you are not ready to give up your trainer habit, the good news is that they haven’t disappeared. Pared-back pale coloured tennis trainers were spotted at Celine and loud, clashing, rainbow-bright iterations at Rokh.
