20 March 2020 20:46 

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

Written 20 March 2020 20:46

COVID -19 Shoe Craze-y


 

The world is in crisis and no one seems to know what is happening from one moment to the next, with toilet paper and dried pasta being classed as luxury items that if seen with, it is very possible that you will be mugged in the street for these, rather than for your rare limited edition Birkin Bag.

With world famous, iconic stores like Selfridges, on the UK’s premier retail destination Oxford street, closing its doors indefinitely and LVMH turning it’s attention to manufacturing hand sanitisers rather than handbags, we really are in very uncertain times. Major fashion houses such as Gucci and Armani have halted all production. Prada and Moncler have donated full intensive care units to hospitals. Kerring, the conglomerate that owns brands such as Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent have sent $1 million to china’s red cross as aid for what many people are referring to as the Wuhan Flu. The world has not seen anything like this since World War 2 when Rolex who have now also stopped production, sent timepieces to soldiers, to keep up their moral. The frontline workers in our World War against COVID-19 are lucky to be getting a paper thin facemask with what I am told by NHS sources have well surpassed their expiry dates and some plastic covers for their shoes when entering ICU.

 

My 7 year old daughter was asking me about the virus and telling me about how at school, the few children that have been in this week before the education system shut down comes into effect, were learning about the Great Fire of London and the bubonic plague and asked if we were living through what will be to her children and her children’s children a major part of history. This got me thinking about history, primarily fashion and wondering what people will remember about 2020 fashion……

When I think about the late 1920s and 30s it was all about sturdy Cuban 2-3inch heeled dancing shoes with thin straps and T-bars and ladies in heeled Oxfords. By the late 30s open and peep toe crisscrossed sling backs were also a big thing. By the 40s with rationing in place from the government, not too dissimilar to the “only 2 identical items” rule being imposed today by most of our major supermarkets; manufactures struggled with the rising costs of leather, so fabric shoes were introduced using a lot of lace, mesh, velvet and reptile skin.  Salvatore Ferragamo introduced cork block wedges to combat the restrictions put on heel height to help women still feel feminine during the depressing climate, however bright colours and decorations were considered inappropriate and gaudy and these soon went out of fashion after the war. Despite now being quite popular today, their popularity was reincarnated by Kate Middleton when she jetted off on honeymoon wearing a simple closed toe black patent wedge from LK Bennet which caused a sell-out of the shoe and mass production by other retailers.

 

With the 2nd World War over, the 1950s Ferragamo again played saviour to women footwear by creating a stiletto heel with a steel arch, allowing heels to be higher than ever and empowering woman and their sexuality. The 50’s favourite “Winklepicker” was soon combined with a classic ballet pump and by the swinging 60s the stiletto was gone and flat, more comfortable shoes were all the rage with short miniskirts.

 

The first thing that pops in to anyone’s mind when thinking about 70s fashion is the “Platform shoe” and Sonny and Cher inspired bell bottom trousers. Thinking back to my 80s childhood, I can’t help but remember how excited I was and how grown up I felt with my penny loafers and my mum’s Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 on my arm, or my red Fila high top boots and Naf Naf clothing, gosh it all seems a million years away from today’s crazy Corona pandemic, as does the 90s when my dad took me to buy my first pair of DMs for school. At no point then could I have imagined as I sat watching the 1995 Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo movie, “Outbreak” and thinking how ridiculous and far fetched it was, that in 2020 we would be living it all around the world. Rather than taking a then teenage me to buy the latest pair of shoes or fashion item, my dad (now in his “retirement years”), is stuck in a prison style lockdown in Vietnam as “he may have spoken to someone who may have been on a flight with someone who tested positive to Covid-19”, with us desperately trying to get him repatriated home to the UK, and that rather than the predicted square and exceptionally pointed toes and intricate heels and reptile platforms we were expecting this year, it will be all about clinical flats, plastic shoes covers and the surgical rubber Crocs of those brave doctors and nurses risking their lives to save those of ours and our loved ones.