What Goes Up, Must Come…Laced?

For spring, designers proposed dizzying heights with precariously vertiginous platforms. It made both foot lovers and models shriek alike – the latter on the steep descent from their pinnacles, climaxing when their faces met the runway.It was enough to incite an inspired boycott amongst fashion’s elite. Vogue’s Sarah Mower vowed, “I’m not opting to buy any more [platforms]“, while W’s Jessica Iredale, in “Pretty, Please”, suggested that the next wave will be decidedly elegant, feminine, and, dare I say it, shorter, footwear. But with futurism still firmly in the air and body-con talk sitting at top of mind, the return to ladylike footwear seems rather premature.

Which brings us to the question: where do we go after we’ve shackled, platform-ed, and shellacked feet to disfigured extremes?

Surprisingly, it’s not as tame as you might expect.

At the fall 2007 shows, designers answered that question with one collective response: the lace-up oxford. Nope, not your grandfather’s footwear of choice - although it can be - but a reinterpreted version, elevated by way of a 4-inch heel and PG-13-ed with inserts of patent leather. And while your first associations may be that of Bengay rather than the bedroom, it’s a footwear rooted deeply in the suggestive.The oxford shoe is a style of leather shoe with enclosed lacing originating in Scotland and Ireland during the 17th century. It was initially designed as a foot corset, intended to highlight the curves of men’s feet. When first adopted by women, the shoe was considered a symbol of lesbianism; today’s versions are anything but.

At Burberry Prorsum, Bailey explored their S & M aptitude, opting for slick patent leather and a curving, extended platform; Galliano did them in electric blue python and with tassels at Dior; Fendi’s version was an impeding foot extension complete with a studded heel.

And while carnal sex was the overwhelming message, both YSL and Phillip Lim’s versions (Lim’s a studios affair consisting of ochre suede and a leather vamp), if not entirely eliminating the potentially undignified associations to the pole, at least suggested, albeit likely idealistically, its wear was simply for educational funding.