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Norma Matinez
One of the season’s strongest fashion trends will have women stepping out in style.
Women’s dress shoes have been updated in bright colors and prints with funky new heels of all shapes and sizes.
Maggie Douch, operations manager at Dillard’s at Hamilton Place, said the shoes include asymmetrical designs.
“Each designer has come up with different looks,” she said. “What the shoe looks like in the front is not what it looks like from behind.”
The heels vary from geometric, artsy and animal prints to colored acrylics, carved wood and different shapes.
“Patent leather is huge,” Ms. Douch said. “I’ve never seen a collection like this. We’ve got colors that look like sherbet ice cream — orange, green, purple and many more colors.
“There’s nothing like a pair of red patent leather shoes,” Ms. Douch said. “Pair white linen pants with a navy swing jacket and red patent shoes for a fantastic look.”
And you can discard the old rule of matching the color of shoes to purses.
“That’s too predictable. Choose a contrasting color in a bag or a silk scarf, advised stylist Mariel Haenn in this month’s issue of InStyle magazine.
Though bright colors and patterns are dominating shoe fashions this spring, designer Nicky Hilton told InStyle magazine that black pumps are a fashion classic.
“Not only do they make your legs look longer, they make your feet look smaller,” she said. “Plus, they go with everything.”
Sasha Carden, owner of Discount Designer Shoes on Apison Pike in Collegedale, said she’s seeing trends not only in the design of heels but also the height.
“I’ve got some Stuart Wietzman shoes with heels 5 inches high,” she said. “It’s a trend, and women are buying them.”
Ms. Carden said the Jessica Simpson line offers funky new heels.
“I have a Jessica Simpson black leather shoe with a 3-inch cream-colored acrylic heel,” she said. “It’s a very pretty shoe.”
While designer shoes typically carry a hefty price tag, Pierre Hardy, who designs some of the “most wildly surreal heels” in high fashion, is debuting a line of shoes for Gap, according to the March edition of Elle magazine. The collection includes pointed-toe flats, chunky wooden platforms and leather gladiator sandals, the magazine reported.
Ms. Carden said she discounts the designer shoes in her store.
“I get them when they’re either overstocked or seasonal,” she said. “And I price them as low as I can.”
Feature writer Karen Nazor Hill covers fashion, design, home and gardening, pets, entertainment, human interest features and more. She also is an occasional news reporter and the Town Talk columnist. She previously worked for the Catholic newspaper Tennessee Register and was a reporter at the Chattanooga Free Press from 1985 to 1999, when the newspaper merged with the Chattanooga Times. She won a Society of Professional Journalists Golden Press third-place award in feature writing for ...
