Miuccia Prada's musings may seem hard to believe. Bags have been the rescue package for many a designer brand - those unable to establish high-level sales of pricey clothing and unwilling to exchange credibility for cash through a diffusion line. The sheer usefulness of bags - not to mention their high visibility - ensures their appeal. "After all," concedes shoe designer Emma Hope, whose pony-skin sneakers have had their own it-moment, "you can't make such a show-off statement with shoes - you can't really put them on the table in a restaurant."
But there is more to the renewed appeal of the shoe than economics. "For women, shoes are still about fantasy and dressing up - shoes can make you feel something special in a way a bag really can't," suggests Michael Lewis, Kurt Geiger's head of design direction. "Shoes can give you a different persona.If that is the case, women will be positively schizophrenic this season: the latest statement shoes are driving towards new extremes, both in terms of proportion - from vertiginous stilettos to hefty, exaggerated soles - and design, with vintage, cartoon, and ultra- stylised sculptural elements all featuring. "I think we're all just a bit bored of hearing about it-bags and at the luxury level there is renewed excitement about shoes, which are suddenly much more creative, individual and wacky," says the accessories designer Orla Kiely.
(Via dailyme.com)
