I was so excited to read about the collaboration between Liberty art prints and Clarks. I am a huge fan of art nouveau. Those ornate florals, swirls and decorative patterns that you can’t take your eyes off are all part of the appeal and the idea to translate this into shoe designs to me, and probably many other ladies, seems inspired.
I was disappointed. This is mainly due to my expectations being so high, but also the fact that there was not a suitable style for me in the limited collection. I felt that the desert boots lacked a certain finesse and overused the print, whereas the sensible shoe didn’t use enough of it.
Don’t get me wrong though, I would have rushed out and bought the amazing wedges in a second. They really used the print to the best effect and were exactly what I had in mind when I read about the collaboration. With just the right amount of print along the angle of the heel, these look like top designer items and are a must for any fashionista – if it wasn’t for the fact that I would be ginormous in them.
Height is an important part of the selection process when you are considering which pair of shoes to purchase. It can be the difference between an outfit looking OK and looking great. Longer trousers depend on a higher heel to create the illusion of long legs whereas flared trousers that finish at your ankle can look terrible with a pair of heels!
It is not only your outfit that can look questionable with the wrong heel height. I have many tiny friends whereas I am reasonably tall. With platforms, I tower above them, which I just find completely impractical and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I can tell instantly by looking at these gorgeous shoes, that if I buy a pair, they will be an ornamental sandal only as I will always opt for a medium heel when choosing what to wear.
I struggle to find my optimum heel height though. This stylish wedge from Miss Selfridge is one of my favourites, but at 5 inches, is way out of my league height wise. So many of the mid heel shoes are sensible shoes – this seems to be the case with the Clarks/Liberty range and within many other stores that I have seen. Just because I want a mid heel, does not mean I want something smart and soulless. I do like these nude peep toe shoes from Debenhams though, and they are the perfect height. It’s a shame that you can’t gain much from the image, such as the width of the shoe or how it looks from other angles, but they have definitely made it on to my shortlist.
What Debenhams and Miss Selfridge have in common is a feature that gives you an idea of how high the heel is. This helps me to narrow my choices down and go straight to the height of heel that I require. It would be good to see this extended to more stores. Many women shop for a pair of shoes with a particular outfit in mind and it would really help us to get it right first time. In this world of online shopping, I think that shops need to smarten up and implement all of these additional features that a girl finds important when making a purchase decision. This will result in far less returned items and many more happy customers.
