An overview of competing styles and prices for online shoe retail this season, in partnership with Next

Thanks mostly to some stereotyping by Sex and the City, shoes are now synonymous with female ‘guilty pleasures’ in the UK. Whether we look to the catwalk (especially the concoctions coming out of London Fashion Weeks), the Louboutin-ed red carpet or the high street Shoe Room at Next, womens shoes are clearly big business.
 
Just how big, however, is up for debate. Reports and studies into women’s shopping and ownership of shoes vary greatly: this Daily Mail article from 2011 states that ‘Miss Average’ owns 39 pairs of shoes. Yet less than a year previously in May 2010, the Telegraph reported that the average woman owns 17. Did figures more than double in a year?!
 
What is more troubling is that both articles also point out the harm of this habit – not only to our pockets, but our feet! The Mail noted that 86% of women surveyed admitted to having had some kind of injury related to their footwear. Ouch.
 
So with the ‘average’ woman buying a new pair of shoes a month, colliding with a deepening double-dip recession, who wins out – luxury, designer shoes-of-dreams; or increasingly ambitious high street competitors? We’re putting three trends head to head to see who comes out on top.
 
1. Printed shoes
As the Guardian’s Jess Cartner-Morley explains here, prints have got bigger and bigger in recent years; and printed shoes are merely the culmination. Her Nicholas Kirkwood pair, over £500, combine berry colours and floral tones for a painterly look. But if you’re going print, might as well go all out: we actually prefer these £40 scarf-print wedges from Next, that are way more rude-boy, and a bit more fun…
 
2. Slashes, peeps and Vs
These Lanvin heels in hot pink leather are amazing party shoes; don’t look amazingly comfortably, but if you’re dancing the night away and a little merry, you probably wouldn’t notice. These berry V-cut peep toe shoe boots combine several key ‘cut-out’ styles, and are a lovely, more wintry high street option; but we think the Lanvins win out for sheer impracticality!
 
3. Sportsluxe
The best way to do this is urban boutiques, really; who wants to buy trainers from a posh catwalk designer? There are Union Jack-inspired hi-tops at Next, or high-luxe Burberry; but there’s nothing like a chunky Reebok classic high top in this department…

Posted on May 27, 2012 at 12:17:10 by The Real Runway