Haute couture may typically be revered as fashion’s most rarified arena, with this season as no exception. Take a closer peek at the details, though, and things start to get a bit trippy – especially when it comes to the footwear. No, your eyes aren’t fooling you; you aren’t high – fashion’s most recent couture runways have had some wild and whacky heels walking all over them, from Schiaparelli’s peacock-point pumps to the earthy toadstool-ettos that grounded Matthieu Blazy’s ethereally light Chanel couture debut – not to mention the pearl pea pod pumps from his sophomore Jack and the Beanstalk-themed outing.
Of course, high heels plucked straight from the whimsical world of fairytale are hardly anything new in fashion, where trompe l’oeil is basically tradition. There are Nicolas Ghesquière’s spring/summer 2007 Balenciaga Lego heels, Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer 2010 Armadillo platforms, Y/Project’s Cinderella slippers – and, of course, Chanel’s very own history of mind-boggling shoe moments, as chronicled by Instagram’s favourite shoe archivist @larslala.
After all, footwear has always been familiar ground for freaky ideas – here, we look back on some of the most fantastical high heels in fashion history.
