My name is Karen Dacre and I’m a flataholic. A flat shoeaholic, that is. My affliction took hold at the end of last year, notably at Marc Jacobs’s latest spring/summer show, during which the designer caught my eye with a pair of dazzling monochrome stripe winkle-pickers. “I need never bother with heels again,” I thought as I gazed across the catwalk at the beautiful sight that lay before me.
Of course, Jacobs wasn’t the first to put flat shoes on the runway. And his shoes weren’t the first to catch my gaze. Instead they served as an eye-opener, a beautifully crafted beacon for change: just because a shoe is flat it needn’t be dull, And, crucially, it needn’t be cheap, either. Instead, it could be desirable, awe-inspiring and even outfit-defining. Aided by a host of the world’s best-loved shoe brands that have at last grown wise to the benefits of including flat styles in their ranges, It slippers are now essential celebrity fodder.
Supremely priced Charlotte Olympia — known for its sky-high stacked sandals — was one of the first labels to take its collection down an inch or two, most notably with a pair of cat slippers — yours for a cool £400 — which rapidly became the shoe to be seen in this spring. Along with my fellow flataholic Alexa Chung, the slippers are now a wardrobe staple for Beyoncé, model Miranda Kerr and actress Emma Roberts.
Fellow Brit brand Penelope Chilvers has enjoyed similar success with its palm tree print slippers. Currently sold out at retailers across the capital, the slippers — which can be adapted in colour and trim as part of Chilvers’s bespoke service — are among the most coveted shoes this summer.
The designer’s latest flat creation, a pink embroidered slipper jauntily titled the Tequila, is set for similar success when it touches down at MatchesFashion.com today. Showing no sign of disappearing anywhere fast, slippers in luxurious forms are available all over the shops at the moment. Net-A-Porter has a host of velvet, bejewelled and printed styles by everyone from Jimmy Choo to Miu Miu, while the rails at Matches boutiques are filled with slippers from Burberry to Alexander McQueen.
“We have been feeling a move towards flats and lower heels for a couple of seasons now,” confirms Natalie Kingham, head of fashion at Matchesfashion.com. “This season we have really invested in them and as a category increased the buy by more than 300 per cent.”
Kingham believes that our acceptance of flat shoes as reputable eveningwear attire can account for a considerable proportion of their surge in popularity. “Flats can be worn for cocktails, dinner and indeed the red carpet. They feel right again as eveningwear,” she says, which is music to my ears.
To find your perfect evening slipper, seek out styles with a little texture. A velvet smoking slipper looks great with most little black dresses while ankle-length trousers will benefit from a slipper with a striking trim. For a look that’s more Phoebe Philo than Hugh Hefner, seek out studded skater shoes — Jimmy Choo is a one-stop shop for this style, as, of course, is flataholics’ heaven: Céline.
