THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, September 7 - 8, 2019 |D3
STYLE & FASHION
Don’t dress down. Sneakers
look more considered and inten-
tional when paired with trendy
clothing vs. basics. Try a slouchy
linen pant or floral dress instead
of jeans. Consider the classics. Many
designer sneakers are inspired
by traditional tennis, or running,
shoe brands. Scout out the orig-
inal: It looks more authentic and
saves you hundreds of dollars. Venture manward. Why are
women’s sneakers always fuch-
sia and teal? Learn your sizes in
men’s sneakers to get the more-
interesting lime green/black or
red/white/tan combinations. Socks matter. They should
match your outfit, not your
shoe. Invest in no-show peds for
summer, and some gray, tex-
tured wool tall socks for the
cooler months.AT A CLOSE FRIEND’S wedding in the
Portuguese countryside a while back, I
danced until the wee hours in a pre-
dictably picturesque setting. The next
day, however, my right foot was ach-
ing. After the seven-hour flight home
and a long walk through customs I
knew something was not right. Three
podiatrists, two MRIs and one re-
nowned foot and ankle surgeon later, I
discovered that I had boogied my way
to a rather serious ankle injury that
would simply require time and sup-
portive (read: ugly) shoes to heal.
Time? Sure. But trading ballerina flats
for the same sneakers as my dad?
The accident humbled me into ac-
cepting the fragility of the human
body—in the painfully conspicuous
form of orthopedic shoes. I spent
about 18 months solely wearing run-
ning shoes, minus the three hours I
devoted to getting married in 1-inch
Valentino heels lined with Dr. Scholl’s
pads (fighting back tears from the
pain and the emotion of it all).
Physically, just getting from point A
to B has been exhausting; mentally,
trying to remain confident as a fash-
ion authority in sensible sneakers has
been taxing. In the time I’ve spent in
my go-to pairs of shoes—a gray New
Balance 990 and a black Asics
GT-1000—I’ve had to get creative to
make them feel like they are truly a
part of my personal style. But along
the way, I developed the following
guidelines on how to style sneakers
fashionably:5 Game-Changing
Sneaker Innovations1. VULCANIZED RUBBER (1839)
Inventor Charles Goodyear
discovered vulcanization: a way of
fortifying rubber against abrasion.
The applications included tires and
rubber-soled sneakers.
IN 2000, the trendsetting Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld unexpectedly
sent a model down the runway in a pair of “Instapump” sneakers made in
collaboration with Reebok (the shoe was never sold). Two years later, Adi-
das joined forces with the Japanese master Yohji Yamamoto on Y-3, an
extensive line of sneakers and clothing that still exists today. With its em-
phasis on spare design and technological performance, Y3 has been a
vanguard in a landscape crowded with collaborations between athletic
companies and designers.
These collabs haven’t prevented fashion houses from trying their own
kicks. In 2006, Lanvin introduced what many consider to be the first noncol-
laborative designer sneaker—a cap-toed lace-up somewhere between a tux-
edo slipper and a tennis plimsoll. Luxury labels from Prada to Louis Vuitton
would follow in Lanvin’s footsteps. Today, Sam Lobban, vice president of
men’s fashion at Nordstrom, noted that Dior, Balenciaga and Fendi sneakers
are all popular options. Yet, collaborative efforts between fashion labels and
sportswear companies persist. Reebok has recruited rising New York label
Pyer Moss, while Adidas works with Belgian designer Raf Simons and Lon-
don’s Craig Green. Yet it is Nike’s partnerships with 1017 Alyx 9SM designer
Matthew Williams, Sacai’s Chitose Abe and Off-White designer Virgil Abloh
that have yielded some of this year’s most sought-after sneakers, which
fetch many times their retail price on the secondary market.Raf Simons Fall
2013 RS
Ozweego
Balenciaga Fall
2017
Triple-S
Comme des
Garçons Fall 2018
Comme des
Garçons & Nike
Platform Cortez
Phoebe Philo at
Céline Fall 2011
Adidas Stan
Smith
Rick Owens
Fall 2016
Geobasket
Sacai Spring
2019
Nike & Sacai
LDWaffleChanel Spring
2001 Chanel &
Reebok
InstaPump Fury
Louis Vuitton
Spring 2018
ArchlightCATWALK CHALLENGERS / SNEAKERS HAVE FEATURED PROMINENTLY IN FASHION SHOWS FOR DECADES. SOME HIGHLIGHTS, BELOW
Ever thirsty to gain street cred, high fashion has long
nurtured a mutually beneficial relationship with kicksCan Sneakers
Be Stylish?
Fashion editor Rebecca
Malinsky willed them
to be, following a
debilitating foot injury
A Very Squeaky Runway
2. NIKE AIR (1978) With the help
of aerospace engineer Frank Rudy,
Nike rolled out the Tailwind, its
first model with a cushy “air bag”
tucked in the sole.
3. GEL CUSHIONING (1987) Asics’s
Tiger Gel-Lyte running shoes
swapped hefty foam linings for a
silicon-based gel. At just 9.9 ounces
it opened the door for
featherweight footwear to come.
4. KNIT UPPERS (2012 ) Sneaker
tops crafted from special yarns, like
Nike’s Flyknit, or natural and
synthetic fibers, as in Adidas’s
Primeknit, lightened shoes further
and helped eliminate waste.
5. 3-D PRINTING (2013) Nike’s Vapor
Laser Talon football cleat was the
first fully 3D-printed cleat of its kind.
Today brands from New Balance to
Adidas to Under Armour are printing
soles, uppers and entire shoes. RYAN MESINA/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (MALINSKY); GETTY IMAGES (CHANEL, PHILO, SIMONS, COMME DES GARÇONS, SACAI); ILLUSTRATIONS BY LUCY HAN
TIES NOT OPTIONAL Off Duty’s deputy fashion director wears her
trusty New Balances with a directional Céline dress.MAXMARA.COM