Monday, February 20, 2012

Return of The Pump

Jenna Lyons by Tommy Ton for Style.com
Among the sweeping statements I’ve made about this past Fashion Week: a salute to mature silhouettes, the reintroduction of excessive fur, an overwhelming amount of the p-word, few sentiments were left to tackle footwear. Trending this season though, more knee length boots than booties and perhaps more prevalently, era of the sky high platforms may or may not be nearing death. Its successor: a pointed toe pump. This doesn’t necessarily speak to the end of the platform, it’s just somewhat hard to craft an elegant pointed toe shoe when there are cinder blocks manifesting just below them. We grazed upon this subject right before the initiation of fashion week, but let’s flesh it out.
Photographed here from F/W 2012: Peter Som, Thakoon, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Prabal Gurung. And there’s something to be said about that ankle strap too. Now, I remember taking note of a discreet diversion to footwear that stands closer to the ground last season, I didn’t think much of it other than, you know, oh shorter heels: too bad. But there’s a theory that says the higher the heel, the worse the economy and while I can’t speak for the collections of say, Theyskens’ Theory or Dennis Basso, the general consensus on heel height this season was a decent two inches shorter. On a larger scale, this theory about the correlation between fashion and economy suggests that consumers at large turn to more extravagant and outrageous fashions as a means to suspend the perils of real life.
 
And we know this season was less about wow, more about practicality so with all this new success fashion indicates may be in our cards, let’s say so long to the hooker heel and get shopping. It seems that Valentino may have had it right all along.
From left: Miu Miu gingham slingback, Sergio Rossi’s yellow suede pump, Christian Louboutin’s gold metallic toe, that may or may not still subscribe to a school of hooker, a pink suede ASOS pump, blue suede Carven slingback clad in bow, Charlotte Olympia’s denim/raffia version–to perfect the tuxedo and because, well, not all of us are ready to quit platforms just yet, fire truck red a la Alejandro Ingelmo in patent leather, Aldo in orange suede and Alexander Wang in stark white. Thoughts?

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