SEEKING THE PERFECT SHOE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 82, 28 June 1927, Page 5

SEEKING THE PERFECT SHOE

By PAULINE BOUCHIER. How important shoes are becoming! The theory seems to be generally accepted that perfect footwear makes the wearer feel well, besides look well in the tumier’s critical judgment, and clever shoes artists who study the vag aries of fittings show that there is no end to the variations in the new modes. Without doubc, lizard and calf-skin are the great craze of the moment. They have hitherto been used for the entire shoe, but I saw one pretty new scheme in a Queen Street shop this morning, where beige leather had a piping of pearl lizard, a strip over the seam at the back, and heels covered with the same fancy skin. The shape of these “simple” shoes was exquisite. COMFORTABLE HEELS I have also noticed that the new shoes, particularly those in lizard, are made with heels of varying heights. This is a great concession, for what smart has not experienced the disappointment of having to reject a lovely shoe because the heel was too high or too low? One pair of dainty strap‘-shoes in a

plain colour are made with the sides covering the feet very snugly, leaving but a space of an inch to be crossed by a slender strap. This is in direct contrast to smart Spanish shoes which are no more than toe-cap and heel, sloped away on either side. There is a new leather on the market in deep brown, highly polished to simulate a patent leather, and this, so far, has been used only for court shapes. WONDERFUL EFFECT Piquant is the shoe which is strapped from the extreme back on one side, after the style of a wonderland shoe, to button in the usual position at the other. But such freakish patterns ,are only for those whose feet are slim, and whose ankles are faultless. Calf skin makes up well in this design. I have found that a design which is at all freakish, is usually finished with a very choice button, perhaps a coloured pearl, a glistening paste-gem, or a minute square of fancy leather, '’’old buttons appearing on silver shoes, and vice versa, are amusing notions, and beautifully coloured pearl heels “go” with pearl buttons. LINEN OR DOESKIN Pretty shoes for summer are of rose linen embroidered in dull blue, and black satin is piped with gold and ornamented by a gold buckle. White doeskin shoes for tennis are strapped with coloured leathers. On one new model, the strip of soft green leather buttons right over the instep, and the toe-cap is finished with a broad strip of the coloured leather, with these gay, flat-heeled shoes are sold woollen socks in white, topped with green.