Byline: Liz Jones
LV Jewellery HAS the end of the road been reached for the cheap shoe? According tonew research conducted by Mintel, over the next five years the number of pairsbought annually in the UK is expected to drop by 7 per cent.
Analysts believe women have wised up to the fact that cheap shoes areuncomfortable and liable to disintegrate at the first sight of a puddle.
So although they might buy fewer pairs, in future, they are likely to save upfor more expensive shoes: one-third of women questioned said they now pay more.But are High Street shoes really guaranteed to give you blisters, or have webeen brainwashed? We now, on average, own between four and six handbags each,and consider spending upwards of [pounds sterling]400 normal. Consequently, accessories havegrown to be the most profitable part of any fashion business.
Visit Prada or Miu Miu, and it seems the whole ground floor is just shoes,bags, luggage, wallets and belts; but the strategy has worked.
Accessories at Burberry, once famous only for its trench coats, now make up 31per cent of total sales.
The luxury labels, hit by the credit crisis, want us to keep spending, andwhile we seem to have reached saturation point with the number of bags onoffer, footwear was, until last year, relatively untapped.
Not any more. We are now bombarded with images from the catwalk ofmulti-coloured platforms and wedges in weird and wonderful shapes, fashionedout of ever more exotic skins. Barely a week has gone by when there hasn't beena new shoe trendthe gladiator, the caged platform, the shoe bootto swoon over in the pages of Grazia magazine. WOMEN have begun to learn, forthe first time, the names of shoe 'couturiers', such as British designerNicholas Kirkwood, French maestro Christian Louboutin and American favourite ofthe stars, Brian Atwood. According to Holli Rogers, head of retail at Net-a-Porter, which sells labels only at the top end of the market: 'We have seen anincredible increase in sales of footwear. Women are spending more to attainbetter design and craftsmanshipBottega Veneta is a great arbiter of this. Also, the rise in status of designershoes has certainly contributed to this trend.' Net-a-Porter's winterbest-sellers included Christian Louboutin's Moro shoe boot for Roland Mouret,which sold out in three colours despite an eye-watering [pounds sterling]520 price tag, and forspring the Christian Louboutin Rodita sandals ([pounds sterling]430) and Chloe's patentcone-heel shoe boots ([pounds sterling]316) are selling briskly..
Dimmable LED Down Light K1028 - 6x1W / 6x3W All the top brands are muscling in on shoe mania. Mulberry, which saw salesrocket after it collaborated with the likes of Luella Bartley for its bagcollections, this week launched its first shoe collectiona riding boot, ankle boot, shoe boot, pump and flat lace-up in plum, coffee andgrey. Designed by Jonathan Kelsey, who learned his trade at Jimmy Choo, priceswill range from [pounds sterling]250 to [pounds sterling]550.
So what about Mintel's claim that women are spurning the High Street becausethey want something comfortable and lasting? Terry de Havilland, the EastLondoner who came up with the platform in the Seventies for the likes of DavidBowie, and who is almost singlehandedly (singlefootedly?) responsible for itsrenaissance, says his shoes, like the [pounds sterling]380 Gold Margaux python sandal worn byKate Moss for her birthday party last month, are worth the price tag.
'My shoes are handmade in London using mostly Spanish leather, whic
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