subscribe to style file blog via RSSfree speech: hadley freeman on the beauty of ugly shoes
June 4, 2008 2:08 pm
Some trends slip down easily with the masses: tunic dresses, oversize sunglasses, giant It bags. And then there are trends that only appeal to those who wear fashion goggles, those amazing glasses that make the implausible look desirable—magically morphing, say, dresses with stiffened, puffed shoulders from an alien’s version of eighties shoulder pads into a gorgeous mix of modernism and retro referencing. Ugly shoes fall squarely into this latter category. Shoes that look like Transformers, shoes with teapots for heels, shoes with no apparent heels, and the ugliest (and currently most fashionable) of them all: gladiator sandals—fabulously casual to the fashion-goggle wearer, orthopedic and/or geriatric to everyone else.
Although there is something perverse in spending $500 (OK, closer to $1,000) on shoes that are, well, ugly, there’s a delightfully honest quality about the trend. A conventionally attractive choice—say, quasi-invisible strappy stilettos—might make the wearer look sexier in an “Oh, yes, I naturally glide through the air like Tinker Bell” sort of way, but if I spend half the month’s rent on a pair of shoes, I want people to notice them. OK, maybe this “noticing” comes in the form of them asking, “Why are you wearing my Great-Aunt Gerta’s sandals with your jeans?,” but at least attention has been paid.
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