Wedges And Platforms Are Back

PARIS - High off the ground they walk. But
instead of the familiar click! clack! of the
ladylike high-heel shoe, there is a stomping
thud. The platform sole, the wedge heel and
the mule have staged a fashionable comeback.

Shoes for spring and summer are heavy. Even
the high-heel sandal, held to the foot with
a couple of straps, tends to stand on a
built-up sole and sturdy heel. For those
used to daintier footwear, let's call it
the thin end of the wedge.

The most popular sandals are rock solid: a
Chinese platform-sole style where the base
is as thick as a club sandwich, and the wedge
shoe, where a triangular slab-of-cheese lifts
the heel off the ground.

The one factor the hefty sandals have in common
is that they are pretty. Pretty? Yes, because
instead of being made in plain leather, there
are dozens of options, from fruit-pastel suedes
through jewel-color velvets and flower-pattern
fabrics. And leather itself often comes decorated,
like the antique finishes and embossed flower
patterns of Prada's 1970s revival shoes. Modernist
designers have found other ways to lighten up the
heavy shoe, by using transparent vinyl, perhaps
inset with flowers, for the instep of a mule; or,
like Kickers' sports sandals, by using Neoprene
and replacing buckles with Velcro fastenings.

Perhaps the most striking transformation is of
the mule. The backless slipper, so long associated
with boudoir or hooker (think Marilyn Monroe
in marabou-feather mules) has shaken off its
fluffy, sleazy connotations to become
hip. It now joins the clog and the orthopedic
sandal, as part of footwear's cool scene.

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