By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
June 22, 2000
Feminine fashion has returned. This fall, pack away your clunky boots and platform heels.
The ultra-casual look is being replaced by prettier, more delicate designs.
“Last year for both spring and fall, there were bigger bottoms and oversized bottoms,” says Meg Rottman of Style PR, a marketing agency specializing in fashion. “There were a lot of ultra-casual shoes and boots.
“For fall, we’re seeing everything a little sleeker and smoother, with very feminine tailoring. Fashion in general is becoming a little more retro and dressed up, and shoes are following that trend.”
This doesn’t mean that fall’s trendy shoes are going to be all about the spiked heel, but there will be a lot more attention to detail, with pretty bows and stitching.
The stretch microfibers of the last two years are less important these days. Textured fabrics are in.
You’ll find plenty of styles in tweed, plaid and herringbone. But exotic, smooth skins, such as pony and snake, are showing up alongside luxurious fur- (and faux fur-) trimmed creations.
The heels are angular, with an architectural slant this season. And replacing the chunky heel are the sexy Cuban heel (think Beatles, circa 1964) and the cute wedge cut.
Sandalized footwear is also a huge trend this fall, according to Style PR. Taking a cue from the West Coast, women across the country are intrigued by shoes featuring open toes and backs.
The classic, delicate D’orsay–shoes with covered toes and heels, but cut down to the bottom on the sides–also are making a comeback.
“We’ve already had Casual Fridays and now there’s talk of Dress Up Thursdays,” says Rottman. “It’s not just manufacturers trying to get women to dress up in suits. Women are responding to bringing back a certain kind of style that has been abandoned. It’s fun to dress up and wear pretty clothes, and stepping into a pair of very pretty, feminine shoes perfectly sets that tone.”
Well-heeled stars love their Manolos
“My shoes are not fashion. They are gestures; objects that happen to be fashion.” —Manolo Blahnik
When Jennifer Aniston walked down the aisle to marry Brad Pitt, she did so in a pair of very expensive, very delicate ivory-colored suede high-heel Manolo Blahnik sandals.
She’s not alone when it comes to her adoration of Manolos. Kate Moss, Diana Ross and Jennifer Lopez all are fans. His creations were mentioned nonstop on the cult cable TV series “Absolutely Fabulous.”
And Sarah Jessica Parker’s character on “Sex and the City” is even mugged for her Manolos.
“The thing about Manolos is that you really feel like a girl when you’re wearing them,” Parker said at the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles earlier this summer. “They’re how you want to be: pretty, strong and really original.”
Madonna says Blahnik’s shoes “are as good as sex, and they last longer.”
Hip-hop diva Queen Latifah won’t go that far in her praise for the shoes, but she says they “are definitely a way to make a girl feel cute really fast.”
For those of us who don’t have $450 to plop down for a pair of his sexy shoes, we may live vicariously through Manolo Blahnik (HarperCollins, $50), a coffee-table book that offers a look at both the man and his well-received designs.
As to his genius for giving women what they want, he remains nonplussed. “I’m sure I acquired my interest in shoes generically,” he says in the book. “Or at least through my fingers when I was allowed to touch them as they were made.”
