Platform heels are concerning the New York Times. Are you for or against their charms?
Cathy Horyn is one of the most influential fashion writers on the planet – for all that Karl Lagerfeld nastily said he’d never heard of her when she wrote negatively of one of his shows.
She’s the fashion critic for the New York Times, and she’s taking on a big chunk of our current shoe wardrobe: platforms. Horyn critiques the trend caustically, saying that the “super-high platforms” on women teetering around New York cause her sincere worry.
“Ballerinas in toe shoes would have more contact with the pavement,” she notes. She’s also noted the impossibility of buying modestly high shoes with the current platform trend all over our wardrobes.
Platforms, she says, have become “absurdly big – like a giant Idaho potato wedged under the ball of your foot”. Ouch.
Platform heels are one of the biggest sellers of recent years, with critics citing inspirations such as Lady Gaga’s McQueen hooves and Louboutin’s gigantic Daffodile shoes – worn by Beyonce, among others – as sparks for the trend.
However, the hobbling heights may soon come to an end. Fashionistas listen to Horyn, and if she condemns something sooner or later it tends to meet its downfall.
So wear your platform heels now – it may be hopelessly out of fashion by the time the next season comes around, which might be better for everybody’s balance.
Image: Daffodile shoes.
If you’ve been designing clothes in your garage and longing for your big break, the Australian fashion scene has a new prize just for you.
The Launch Your Label competition opened this week in floods of hype – and the prizes alone are causing eyes to bug out. It’s no flash-in-the-pan promotional scheme, but an in-depth prize package designed to provide a business platform – on every level.
There’s advertising in Shop Til You Drop magazine, a start-up marketing pack, mentoring, an internet boutique including shipping, and all sorts of other goodies. In other words, all the things a genuine start-up label needs and often can’t afford.
The judges are no slouch either. It’s one of the biggest judging panels in competitions in years, with Gail Elliot, Peter Morrissey, Terry Biviano and Glynis Trail-Nash all adding their voices alongside 10 others to pick the winner.
The applications open on 15 April, and the winner will be announced in August. It’s open to anybody over 18, but don’t enter unless you’re serious – the judges are looking for “technical skill, design, creativity, business acumen and commitment”. No diva behaviour allowed here.
Hopefully the Launch Your Label competition will start the careers of some truly stratospheric Australian talent. As Dion Lee and other young designers have proved, this is a country to watch, and the more resources put into the labels the better.
Go to launchyourlabelaustralia.com.au for more details, and tell all your fashionista friends – this is one to watch.
Image: Fashion sketches by Peter Som.
