THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 9, 1995 TAG: 9502080088
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CAMMY SESSA, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
TO GET A LEG up on fashion this spring, consider white shoes. They are cool - real cool - according to fashion pundits.
``Duck feet! White shoes make women's feet look like ducks. I won't wear them,'' said one woman when I told her about the trend.
Naturally, there are many old-timers who believe that white shoes have never gone out of style. Memorial Day once signaled the beginning of the white-shoe season and Labor Day ended it. That was the time when fashion rules were immutable. In the summertime, the front porches were filled with ladies sitting in rockers, fanning themselves and watching the world go by in flowered dresses and white shoes.
Those rituals and traditions have long since gone. For the past decade, instead of white, fashionables have opted for beige shoes worn with matching stockings. That combination is less jarring than white when donning pastels and summer or winter whites.
Chic women considered white shoes, well, dorky. And until this season, white shoes worn with dark clothes or accessories was dork with a capital D.
A case in point is Donna Shalala, the secretary of health and human services, who was featured in an article in the October '94 issue of W, the fashion magazine that's a lofty offspring of the trade bible Women's Wear Daily. An accompanying photograph showed Shalala wearing white shoes with a black suit.
A subsequent letter printed in the December issue of W in response to that photograph points out: ``Wearing a black suit and white shoes? That is NEVER done! It's a no-no! No, no, no, no, no, no.''
No? Well, nothing stays the same, particularly in the rag trade. Now, wearing white shoes with black attire - especially hosiery - is haute fashion.
Tennis court style-setter Andre Agassi may be responsible for the trend, according to Newsweek. Last September in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., Agassi defied court tradition by playing the game in white tennis shoes with black socks. Newsweek reports: ``His-white-and-black combo - a look once reserved for nurses, nerds and people who got dressed in the dark - is turning into the smartest bit of women's footwear since high-heeled sneakers.''
In addition to Agassi, the look was dominant in New York and European spring/summer collections. Now, fashionables are taking to white footwear and black hosiery like Susan Powter does to haircuts. Even the teen and youth market has embraced the white-shoe and black-sock rampage.
This is not an easy style to carry off, especially if you are not model height. The perception shortens legs and makes women look dumpy, especially because many new footwear styles have clunky soles and unflattering straps across insteps and heels - difficult styles if legs aren't long and lean.
In a pinch, however, there is a footwear alternative that does make women appear taller, because 4-inch stiletto heels are another rage in the spring fashion lineup.
The mile-high heels are featured in a 12-page photographic spread in the current issue of Vogue. To capture the pain of wearing these heels, models are pictured in wheelchairs, leg braces or maneuvering on crutches. The epitome of bad taste is a picture depicting a woman missing one leg but with a matching prosthesis in spike heels nearby.
Most women of substance will ignore the new footwear trends that either make them look like Minnie Mouse or hookers, but there's no doubt that getting the best foot forward for spring will require serious sole-searching. ILLUSTRATION: Regina Porter redefines fashion with stylized separates
featuring white shoes and dark hosiery.
by CNB