Top 10 trends that changed footwear
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Celebrity style: Sex and the City: The MovieThe ‘It' shoe
What: Status symbol footwear
Why: Inspired by Hollywood celebrities and hugely popular TV shows Sex in the City and Gossip Girl, knowing your Manolos from your Louboutins has never been so important.
Celebrity style: Gossip Girl
Christian Louboutin shoe designer -
Changing attitudes to men's footwearChanging attitudes to men's footwear
What: Outlandish colours, unusual materials and directional design are increasingly being embraced by the men's market
Why: A more experimental approach to men's footwear has carried through from the designers to the mainstream.
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Old-fashioned glamour: women's catwalk accessoriesVintage inspiration
What: Taking inspiration and designs from past eras.
Why: The unique designs of the past have always held a fascination for designers wanting original and individual inspiration, especially when mixed with new silhouettes and updated for a directional look.
Nostalgic glamour: Bettie Page -
NY sneaker store guide: ManhattanSneaker collaborations
What: Hollywood actresses (Scarlett Johansson/Reebok), fashion designers (McQueen/Puma) and retail outlets (Alife Rivington Club) have all stamped their own brands on designer trainers.
Why: The strategic alliances forged through sneaker collaborations have allowed brands to stretch into new territories, turning trainers into highly sort-after fashion items
New sneaker releases: 21/11/06
Prestige brands unite beyond luxury
Artisan trainers -
Key Item Analysis: autumn/winter 2005/06 round toesChanging toe shapes
What: Constantly evolving from pointed to rounded to square.
Why: As tastes and styles evolve, so do silhouettes and toe shapes.
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Key Item Analysis spring/summer 2005: chunky wedgesThe wedge platform
What: The "wedge" was first developed by Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo in the 30s.
Why: The resurgence of vintage styling has seen a return to stable heights and blocky silhouettes, resulting in one of the most iconic and talked about styles of the decade.
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Back in the daysHeritage trainers
What: Trainer brands raiding their archives reinventing their own classic styles with new fabrics, colours, materials and graphics.
Why: This nostalgic trend has allowed sneaker brands to stay relevant to their consumers from their youth through to their vintage years and cashes in on the vintage trend.
Iceland Airwaves 2006: accessories - sneakers
London sneaker freaks -
Trend flash: The sandal bootTranseasonal
What: The trend for wearing transseasonal footwear, blurring the season's and defying practicality.
Why: Boots are worn throughout summer and, with the addition of directional hosiery, sandals continue to be paraded throughout winter. Hybrid styles such as the sandal boot have also emerged in the past couple of years, reflecting this trend.
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Women's catwalk trend: masculine accessoriesAndrogyny
What: Girls will be boys and boys will be girls.
Why: A timeless look, especially for footwear, making a resurgence in recent years, with women wearing masculine lace-ups and men reverting to feminine, unstructured loafers.
Trend update: androgynous footwear -
Weird and Wonderful: surrealist footwearSurreal footwear
What: The trend for whimsical and surreal women's footwear.
Why: Women's footwear has been gradually experimenting with the whimsical and surreal over the past 10 years, as unconventional design challenges tradition with a colourful and witty approach.
