Susannah Frankel: Ready To Wear

Tag : High Heel Boots


The shoe designer Manolo Blahnik will this autumn become the 12thperson to be honoured on the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style, receiving aplaque on the famed Los Angeles shopping thoroughfare and joiningthe ranks of Donatella Versace, Herb Ritts, Mario Testino, GiorgioArmani, Tom Ford and more.
Blahnik is huge in America where, fashion folklore has it, it isnot uncommon for women to hurl themselves at him in adoration, suchis the beauty and unparalleled elegance of his designs. But foryears now the classic, spike-heeled nature of his aesthetic –and nobody does it better – has not been as fashionable as itwas. Yet the belle-laide – and to some people's eyes justplain laide – footwear that has dominated fashion for so longis on its way out.
This turn of events comes, to the minds of many, not a minute toosoon. After all, John Galliano has by now taken the rocking-horseplatform to its most extreme at Dior, where even the world's mostpractised women have tottered tentatively down the catwalk at theirperil. The Balenciaga designer Nicolas Ghesquière, too, hasembellished the biggest, baddest footwear imaginable witheverything from bronzed BMX-bicycle chains to shinyCrayola-coloured plastic. Lanvin's Alber Elbaz said he wanted hisshoes to look like cars – cue a high-tech engineered fusionof metal, perspex and the like which would make even the fiercestfashion follower blush.
For autumn/winter 2008, footwear is following a more traditionallyglamorous route, however. Galliano has ditched the pyrotechnics infavour of still high-heeled (obviously) but only marginallyplatformed sling-backed designs merely hinting at 1940s-styleheaviness. Balenciaga's shoes for autumn/winter are predominantlyclassic, very sharp and pointy and with a high, skinny heel tomatch. Over at Lanvin, meanwhile, the black, stiletto-heeled courtshoe is centre-stage once more, and a sight for sore eyes it istoo.
Alexander McQueen has similarly taken this view. For the first halfof his recent show, black, spike-heeled shoes and boots camecomplete with metal toe-caps – just in case anyone waslabouring under the delusion that his heroine was anythingapproaching passive. For the second half, however, jewelledpaper-flat couture slippers with elongated toes were the order ofthe day.
It almost goes without saying that the aforementioned Blahnik ispurveyor of quite the most delicate variations on this particulartheme. He used to make pumps for the late, great fashion editorDiana Vreeland who would wear little else. Buy two pairs safe inthe knowledge that these particular designs were never meant foranything as banal as walking down Rodeo Drive, for example, orindeed anywhere else one might care to mention.
s.frankel@independent.co.uk
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