Skyscraper heels at LFW

Contrary to popular belief, trudging around fashion trade fairs, hiking across town to showrooms and standing in queues at fashion shows is far from glamorous. It’s also pretty demanding on the feet – especially if, like me, you’re partial to shoes of the high-heeled variety.

Whilst I’ve a weakness for arty and unusual shoes, I’ve noticed that heels seem to be getting higher and higher. When I saw the unique shoe designs by Joanne Stoker at London Fashion Week, I thought she was trying to cash in on this trend with her new ‘Empire States’ collection.






Inspired by Art Deco architecture, the handcrafted Plexiglass heels of Joanne’s shoes are designed to replicate masterpieces from the New York skyline. (Thankfully, no one's tried to base a shoe design on London's Shard of Glass).

Anyway, Joanne informed me that, although her ‘skyscraper heels’ give the impression of being high, they’ve been made with comfort and wearability in mind - and the method of construction means they’re actually only medium-high...






The angular shapes and mosaic style decorations are curiously creative and original, but however easy they are to walk in, the tower block shoes look rather more clunky than, say, the elegantly aerodynamic, space age designs of Chau Har Lee.











When I first saw Chau Har Lee’s designs last year I forgot to mention that we’ve some similar perspex wedges at ShopCurious. Ours are from one of Tom Ford’s early collections for Gucci in the 1990s and feature an angular silver ‘G’ buckle.

I think it’s great when shoes double up as collectable works of design art.

Do you?