Dancing Shoes

By Anastasia Kinsky

I admit it: I don’t like wearing heels. Don’t get me wrong; I have many a time fallen into an uncontrollable love with a pair of Manolo Blahnik’s. But I just can’t hack them. I fully understand that nothing flatters the leg better, but to me, the most important thing on a night out is to be able to dance the night away. In 6 inches, hell even 4, I can only manage an hour.

 

Dance forever

But the statement flat seemed to have disappeared for a while. Ballet pumps, you could find anywhere. But a flat shoe that was going to make someone really jealous was very hard to find. In fact, I had lost faith in all true shoe love of recent. Sure, shoe fashion of late is fun and cool, - but it isn’t timeless. Much of it is very clumpy and masculine. Wonderful if you enjoy that sort of thing; but to me shoes should inspire dancing. They should make you skip down the street. The high street was severely lacking in timeless shoe charisma.

 

So, I would like to take a moment to celebrate Charlotte Olympia, who has understood that not every outfit demands a heel, and has created the most beautiful, classic, fun, flat evening shoes. Hell, not just her flats, but her heels too. She brings back that immortal wine glass heel, and mixes it with wonderful themes, such as her fairytale inspired collection. Blue suedes with little frogs to kiss on them (although you might not want to go around trying to kiss your feet…) her happily ever after black buckled heels, and these fashionably late green velvet slippers …These can be paired with any number of her fantastic clutches, such as her gorgeous red and gold clutch, styled as a fairy tale book, with the bottom of the bad acting as the leather binding, or her wooden clock clutch.

 

Always be fashionably late!

But for me, this pair takes the biscuit: they promise to keep me dancing all night, whilst looking classic and regal in black and gold. They also promise to stand out from your usual ballet pump, and have people stop and stare without killing the balls of your feet.

 

Up all night to get lucky...

Thank you, Charlotte Olympia, for bringing back the dainty and statement flat, and restoring my love for fun shoes. And yet, curse you, for being so far out of a student budget.