LONDON — There’s a scene in “The Devil Wears Prada” where Anne Hathaway’s character, Andrea Sachs, describes the women who work at the fictional Runway magazine to her boyfriend as the “clackers.”
Her confused boyfriend asks, “The who?”
“They call them clackers. The sound that their stilettos make in the marble lobby. It’s like ‘Clack, clack, clack. Clack, clack,’” Sachs says.
Nearly two decades later, the clackers are mostly on their way out as a result of the pandemic.
Shoe design has undergone a sea change, with heels getting lower and designs more subtle without a clack within earshot.
Brands large and small are designing shoes with subtle twists that give them an artistic edge to make them interesting enough for their customers to talk about and walk in.
“The resurgence of flat shoes is a testament to the casualization of fashion which we have seen over the past year. We’ve seen sales of flat shoes are up by nearly 20 percent versus last year, driven by those Alaïa ballet flats, which were definitely the ‘It’ shoe of the year in 2023 and are still reigning supreme,” said Libby Page, market director at Net-a-porter, naming Chloé’s Rebecca Sandals, Alaïa’s mary janes and The Row’s variety of flats as examples.
At Browns, Hollie Harding, buying manager for womenswear, nonapparel, pinned the rise of grounded shoes on the quiet luxury trend and agreed that Alaïa’s jeweled ballet flats were a key hit in the rise of flat shoe discourse.
“As part of the quiet luxury trend, customers are looking to make investment purchases. Within that, flats with interesting textures that can make a more subtle statement have become bestsellers. For the upcoming season, we’ve expanded our edit of interesting flat footwear and are launching new flats from Alaia, Carel Paris, mesh flats from The Row and Prada’s square-toed update of their bestselling pumps,” she said.
In 2023, London designer Evie Reddy founded an accessories brand, Ottange, with her partner Arthur Beerens, debuting with mid-low heels with caps that resemble wax seal stamps.
Reddy finds buying vintage heels an easy task, but it’s contemporary styles that have proven to be a struggle for her.
“I always feel torn between a moment of infatuation with a shoe and the looming feeling that this style will be exhausted after one year. Subsequently, I contemplate the investment’s worth. Alternatively, there are timeless and seasonless labels, but they can sometimes feel too safe. Through Ottange, I’d like to offer women shoes that feel feminine but not conventionally glamorous, versatile but not an everyday shoe,” she said, calling her designs “enduring statements.”
Ottange has six styles on offer: two sandals and pumps, a platform and mule in four colorways, including black, silver, baby blue and chocolate brown.
When designing, Reddy wanted to push the sculpted element as she sees a natural synergy between shoes, sculptures and objects of craft.
“I was influenced by a book on Charles Schneider [Art Deco glass artist] glassware. I love the paradoxical nature of glassware — it’s fragile and sharp. There’s a sense of fluidity and motion in this type of glassblowing, which I thought could be dynamic for heels. So I started testing resin and eventually developed 3D-printed prototypes,” she said.
There was never an effort to make consciously comfortable shoes as the designer wanted to focus on the first craftsmanship first, but to her surprise, comfort and craftsmanship worked together.
Even though Zofia Chylak founded her brand Chylak in 2014 with a focus on bags, she had always dreamed of making shoes, which she launched in the spring of 2023.
Her ambitions were more practical than aesthetically driven.
“My goal was to create designs that look graceful in all sizes. I wear a size 41 myself and am often dissatisfied with how shoes look in this size. While most shoe models are developed first in size 37 — and later scaled up — we also develop them in size 41,” Chylak said.
Her designs borrow from vintage shoes and ballet flats featuring romantic touches such as big bows, laces and fringes.
Chylak’s shoes could be worn by King Louis XVI to court or by Marie Antoinette to frolic in her private gardens.
Even though she launched her collection after the pandemic, subtle shapes that can be worn every day became important in a short period of time with an eye on making elegant styles.
“Our shoes are designed from a female perspective — they are modern and elegant with a very curated design approach. The ethos of Izie was formed during my time studying design in New York City,” said Isabella Bowie, founder of footwear brand Izie, which launched in the summer of 2023.
“I watched friends tip-toe around in stilettos, going for a wedge as a backup or carrying a tote bag with a pair of trainers inside. I felt there had to be a better solution,” she added.
The brand offers four styles: the Highbury, a mid-calf boot with a slanted heel in oxblood red, white and black; the Port, a curved sandal with a matching heel in oxblood red, denim, gold, orange and black; the Waverly, a closed-toe mule with a curved heel and upward toe-cap in six different shades, and the Chester, an open-toe mule borrowing the heel of the Highbury available in black and orange, silver and gold, and denim with silver.
“We really consider the foot and how it sits in the structure of the shoe. Take our Port sandal, it’s a nod to a classic ‘90s naked sandal, but we have reimagined it with an asymmetrical front strap which not only makes it unique to us, but also creates a more secure and comfortable fit,” Bowie said.
Izie’s signature heels pay tribute to Enzo Mari, the Italian furniture designer famed for his modernist designs.
The low shoe is expected to continue to reign through at least the spring and summer.
At Sabato De Sarno’s Gucci debut, comfort trumped killer stilettos with flat and chunky loafers, and low slingback sandals; Maria Grazia Chiuri presented flat gladiator sandals, and furry flats peeked from under boot-cut denim at Balenciaga.
Phoebe Philo followed suit — for the October debut of her eponymous label, she put out loafers and pumps — reconfirming that flatter and quieter footwear is the leap of faith needed from sky-high stilettos.
