Putting best feet forward

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 10

Putting best feet forward

FASH ON AND BEAUTY

By\l

Paula Ryan

One one of the greatest changes to fashion this winter is the boost to the styling of footwear. For women, the go-with-anything shoe is the pump. — the simple versatile lines of the pump are back but in new richer, deeper colours, sleekly shaped, metallic piped and ankle tied. Plainess has been replaced with the varying uses of trim. Bright suedes and classic black patents are used to trim leathers although suede is the biggest fashion news for winter and now with the introduction of suedecleaning products the fabric has become easier to care for. For evening the pump remains but in sleek ele-

gant lines. Gold leathers black suede and diamante? combined with punched fluorescent disco styles, permit quite separate footwear dressing for evening. The new shape is the “cone” heels — sometimes high, sometimes low — along with the high-cut, closing-in shapes over the foot. Boots, apart from casual low-heeled cowboy styles, are mainly short, cuffed and piped, slit or bowed. And it seems that the special shoe details of bows, ties. leather pom-poms and flowers are here to stay. This week while in Shoes and Things. 1 saw some of next summer’s shoes, which are a colourful extension of current syling. Footwear for men has taken a step forward also with, the use of similar trims and textures. Men’s footwear is generally lighter and finer in design with inserts, appliques, stitching, cut-outs and reptile skins adding richness and variety. - Mr Basil Carroll, who is a discerning buyer’ of men's fashion footwear, recently showed me the striking features in this winter's footwear styles. Roots are still popular in heavy casuals through to fine, dressed-up styles. Shoes in tone-on-tpne leathers and suedes are made from polished kid, plush suede, patents, woven and perforated leathers, and mixtures of the above. Men’s footwear is no longer plain, boring and very chunky. Rather, it is classy, dressy and strongly European in design.