FASHION & BEAUTY
114 • JULY 2019I
'm a shameless lover and wearer
of beautiful but impractical
heels. I’m fortunate that I can still
wear heels at my age, but this won’t
last forever. Luckily over the past few
years, fashion has delivered a strong
offering of stylish flat shoes for
women. These are worn instead of
heels, in an intentional too-cool-for-
stilettos kind of way. In fact, contrary
though it may sound, the worse the
shoes look, the more stylish they're
considered. After vintage-style Stan
Smith Adidas trainers were embraced
by everyone from fashion editors to
school run mums, Balenciaga
correctly read the crowd and wheeled
out their "ugly trainers." The point is
to wear a lovely dress and juxtaposeLisa Lennkh is a banker
turned fashion writer,
stylist and blogger. Her
blog, The Sequinist,
focuses on sparkle and
statement style for
midlife womenShoes You Can
Walk A Mile In
the prettiness with a pair of geeky
Dad-style clunky trainers.
Where Balenciaga leads, other
brands follow. If you use Instagram,
you will no doubt have had your fill
of ugly trainers by now. Have I
bought into this trend myself?
Absolutely not. I’m wary of any trend
without colour or sparkle, in the
same way I’m wary of people who
don’t like dogs. While Dad Trainers
feel a little "emperor’s new clothes"
to me, I do welcome comfortable
shoes. Although not always quite as
beautiful as heels, they're fast
becoming a fashion necessity.
Last summer, flat shoes like pool
slides, flip flops, and Birkenstocks
were all over the runways as well as
the streets, alongside colourful
trainers. This summer, in the battle
to incorporate comfort and shock
value in one shoe, designers are
copying the famous Teva hiking
sandals—velcro straps and all.
Relaunched in a new range of joyful