subject: Flatforms: The Trend That Keeps Bouncing Back [print this page] Couturiers are like tea bag manufacturers: Fashion weeks in London, Paris and New York parade those teabags to the style gurus each season. Glossy mag editors steal them away, place them in a teapot, strain all the fragrance and flavour from them and serve us an exquisitely brewed drink we find palatable. Chomping on the teabag itself would be a far from practical, not to mention pleasant, endeavour. Time also plays its role in dumbing down inedible flavours. Flatform shoes are a case in point and, incidentally, the accessory that's impressing the sternest fashion police this spring.
The flatform's great grandmother was an entirely practical woman. Courtesans in the 16th century donned lengths that required goliathan platforms to hold delicate skirts off the ground. Enter: grandmother, otherwise known as the chopine, the comfy high rising shoe solution for the working gal. The generations she spawned led geisha lives in Japan followed by more trendy existences from the thirties through to the eighties, when they reached their zenith. Cut to the second decade of the noughties, when her latest grandchildren stomped down the ramps of London, New York and Paris fashion weeks in heights enough to terrify.
Fashion is occasionally kind to the crowds, and thus strained out the flavour, tossed out the indigestible and handed us a platform/flat shoe hybrid: the flatform. More practical than the chopine, comfier than the platform, she's the star child of the entire generation. Couturiers have greeted the trend with swoons and pyrotechnics, making her a key item for spring closets. The vertically challenged who have been wearing them since their last appearance in 2010 can now breathe a relieved sigh. Their tootsies are considered fashionably dressed.
Flatform espadrilles love the maxi dress almost as much as Eeyore loves thistles. They're in camel, taupe, ochre or tan; basket weaves to bring out the hippie in you or leather to haul out the elegance. Pair these with a crochet cuff and your wildest bed hair and you're almost in Woodstock 1969. Channelling the sixties is as simple as adorning your feet with a pair of flatform Mary Janes. These are the 'it' shoe of the season, so they're the shoes to add to your virtual basket.
Couturiers with creative blocks have been seeking inspiration from the streets of Tokyo, which means Japan street wear has been slinking into shows through the back doors. Here, they're wearing flatforms as All Star-style sneakers with living doll outfits complete with tulle and Peter Pan collars. Animal print and cargo have also crept from Japanese haute couture collections and onto flatform sneakers.
Jeanswear is fantastically adaptive to flatforms. Wear a pair of low hung, distressed bootlegs with buckled and black leather flatforms. Cork wedged shoes also set off this denim hue fabulously. Yes, that does mean you need to pack those skinny jeans into your 'perhaps in another life' box. Finally, no spring wardrobe is complete without a pair of floral flatform sandals for that narrow waisted, knee skimming, freedom song singing skirt. Dressed well enough to make Givenchy jealous, you're ready to hit the streetscomfortably.
