New York fashion week is in full swing and (along with watching some downright crazy-dangerous competitions in the Winter Olympics) I’ve been scouring all the gorgeous fashion collections over the weekend. I’ve certainly got my favourites, including Vivienne Tam’s stag dress, which is perfect for next Autumn/Winter, and there have been some looks that I can’t see anyone wearing, let alone myself. But it’s Tuesday Shoesday and I wanted to bring you the best (and the worst) of the new season’s footwear so you can get a head start on planning your shoe wardrobe for next winter.
The first pair of shoes are, in my opinion, the kind of crazy ‘who-actually-wears-this?’ design that we can’t believe someone has made. That someone is Alexander Wang and I just know that the designer’s bags and shoes will definitely be influencing the high street – I bet Topshop is making a copy of this neon utility satchel right now – but this pair of shoe-boots below? Will we really all be wearing half-calf shin-pad mules come September 2014? I’m not sure that’s a look I’m going to be sporting and I couldn’t bear to cut up my knee-high boots to create a thrifty version, so I think I’ll be giving Wang’s space-age military leg-guards a miss. The bag however, is mine, all mine.
One of my favorite collections was by Christian Siriano and was full of autumn colours - all plums, greens and classic black – and I think most of the shades and styles were very wearable. My own look will certainly be influenced by this designer, as I already have plenty of dresses in these colours in my wardrobe and will be happy to get another season’s wear out of them this Autumn/Winter. I especially loved this glitzy dress above which looks like it has been sprinkled with gold-leaf (maybe I’ll try a DIY on my existing dresses to get this look…) and just check out those shoes! This mega-embellished heel touches on the sparkly metallic look that we’re already seeing arriving in stores for Spring/Summer and I think that over-embellishment might be a new trend for Autumn/Winter. I like the crunchy, three-dimensional, broken-glass design and it looks much less tacky than its studded leather footwear predecessors from last year.
Manolo’s shoes c/o The Telegraph
Manolo Blahnik has also gone for rich colours such as greens, navy and purple in his more wearable collection and you can see from the images above that he too has over-embellished shoes with frilly flowers and beads. Really, anything goes in terms of this 3D embellishment trend – whatever makes your shoes stand out and look a little bit OTT is great! I think that this would be the ultimate home-made DIY fashion and you could easily recreate your favorite designer shoes – just a grab one of your old pairs of heels, a glue gun and lots of sparkly embellishments from the craft shop to get the look for yourself at home!
So in terms of colours for A/W14 , choose deep forest greens, velvety blacks and rich plums, which will see you all the way through from September to February. And for your night-out footwear, feel free to choose heavily laden textured or embellished heels and remember my motto – the sparklier, the better! Let me know what you think about these new trends – and which designer influences you’ll be taking away from New York Fashion Week 2014? - leave me a comment below
