Fashionable Footwear

Southland Times, Issue 19897, 16 June 1926, Page 11

Fashionable Footwear

London, April. It seems a pity that there are so many girls who, while realising the importance of cultivating a “dress-sense” fail miserably when they set out to buy a pair of shoes. These girls always choose with discretion the style and colouring of their checked jumper-suits, and just the right tones of grey for their felt hats and spring coats, but they do not possess such a fine sense of what is appropriate in footwear. Yet, without this sense of what are the right shoes to wear with each toilette, the ensemble can never be truly pleasing and complete.

At all the recent dress parades, the short lengths of the new Spring models make it clear that the smart woman will have to pay more careful attention to her footwear than ever before. In fact, her shoe and hose bills are likely to be heavier than they were last year. Those girls who give due consideration to their footwear, will find there is a big selection awaiting consideration. For the time when a well-tailored sports suit is worn, there are a number of neatlycut shoes in strong leathers, a dark crocodile leather being a favoured skin. Such sturdy shoes are invariably made with one, broad bar. These dark shoes, by the way, should not be polished, or creamed, more than once a week. A daily brush and a rub with a soft doth, will keep them quite bright and clean, but an excess of polish, however good it may be, only makes the dark leather “patchy.” At least, so says a shoemaker of repute. Apart from the time when a sports suit is worn, all the lighter shades of grey and fawn are preferred. These light shoes are all made with one strap, though variety is gained by the cut of this single strap. It is laced, and cross-laced. Lizard and snakeskin shoes are favourite shoe materials this season, and these are far less expensive than they were last year, a point in their favour for most of us. Very few court shoes are worn at the moment, either for evening or afternoon wear. The bar shoe seems to have monopolised the fashionable taste in footwear. However extensive, or sadly limited, one’s supply of footwear may be, it should always be seen that the shoes do not lack such little, but essential, attentions, as appropriate shoe-fills, right creams, and regularly cleanings. After ah, it is not excessive wear, but lack of such small considerations as these, which so often means loss of the colour and shape of the shoe. And, it is then that our French neighbours have ample cause to scream at the inartistic anpearance of our footwear! —Pauline Boucher.