Fashion weeks for Menswear Autumn/Winter 2013 are well underway in all the major fashion capitals, offering inspiration for a brand new style next winter or maybe you just want to incorporate a key piece to revive your original look.
Either way, today at MFM we’re going to be focusing on Footwear. Mens used to keep things simple when it came to footwear, but men are becoming more comfortable to be seen wearing creative fancy footwork now than ever before. But don’t worry, the new footwear spotted at various men’s fashion weeks are mainly still in keeping with the traditional styles, yet some include quirky material and pattern combinations or new and interesting details.
So, firstly let’s take a look at the top 5 styles spotted on the menswear catwalks of London.
There was a distinctive winter sportswear theme relevant accompanied with strong bold colours and hiking elements.
The Hiker Boot and Winter Sandal
Yes you heard right… the winter sandal sported by Topman design at the recent Men’s Collections is a very innovative and fashion forward style that we can’t imagine many would wear without layers of very thick socks. This choice of footwear really is going to create a statement, so if you do want to implement them into your look make sure you wear subtle clothing to draw the attention towards the sandal.
Alongside the staple winter boot we all love, we saw hiking influences including details similar to ski hooks and climbing rope made with high performance materials and heavy soles, like the boots seen by Christopher Shannon.
This will give a “heavy duty” feel to the look, and works extremely well with layered looks. Here are some alternatives:
Hi-Top Sneaker
The hi-top sneaker is still going strong as a popular staple style in footwear, with vast appealing power to the younger market. Updates to this style are seen by the combination of bright, bold colours and designs placed against black backgrounds to give maximum effect and create contrast. Recently sported by designers such as Xander Zhou and Katie Eary.
Of course, if the designs from Xander Zhou and Katie Eary are too bold for you, you can often opt for a much more subtle route. The Hi-Top is something you see day in day out as you venture out, and it’s often seen as a suitable choice of footwear for sportswear inspired styles. Take inspiration from the catwalk and look to make the hi-top a focal point to your look, without reinventing your whole style.
Here are some of our product recommendations:
Colourful Accents
Bold and colourful accents were a visible, continuing theme throughout footwear complimenting the similar theme within men’s apparel. Consisting of strong, bold blues and oranges seen across all styles from the hiking boot, sneakers and slip-ons.
Agi & Sam showed an interesting style with a mix of the classic brogue and a rubber based cover slip on. Whilst Jonathan Saunders sported a more understated form of the style only visible on the sole of the slip-on.
So there we have it, some footwear trends straight off the catwalk. Can you see yourself utilising any of these trends into your day to day style? Let us know in the comments below.
Some of it is quite common stuff such as the blue baseball boots (having been around since the 1950′s) and the desert boots (sans salmoncoloured edging) since the 1960 Mod eara (yes I was there).
Suede brogues have also been around since Mod 60′s and probs way before that. Though I do like the tri-colour blue topped ones featured here.
The wild multi-blue suit with two tone blue shoes (lower end of page) is a way out item, really outa sight, but the bright orange and red outfits (at top) look strickly feminine and i can’t see many straight guys going for it. But thinkin’ back to the 60′s one of my fave outfits was my blue tab collar shirt with white polka dots, worn with my blue/green tartan narrow trousers and stack heeled chealsea boots, and that was a real ‘street look’ not catwalk.
Good luck and best wishes with your FD & T studies, I’m 63 now but would still like to study fashion design and hands on making of my own clothes.