it oundabout

Foot Loose and Whisky Free

By KATHARINE WH1TEHORN

THE outside of Harro- gate's largest hotel looked as massively uninviting as it must have looked since the nineteenth century; in- side it had been turned on its head to accom- modate some thousands of pairs of boots and shoes. Four floors of bedrooms had been tiles turned into showrooms: s of drawers stood awkwardly in depressing cream-painted corridors; trays of drinks balanced tt .le basins; flowers and racks of shoes merci- fully, obscured the• mahogany-finish dressing tables. The shoe manufacturers lurked within, nd

from room to room, the trade buyers toured. fc;ted With catalogues and alcohol.

Two women buyers from Harrogate itself Peered thoughtfully over a long pointed toe. 'Of seiudrie, You need that extra for going down hill,' one. 'Aye, but what about people with btiluPy toes?' said the other. There were plenty of those about. The women ,hrea apparently wearing an assortment of the ,

ist

, "en years' remaindered stock; every corridor 1 sofa, and every sofa a man or woman with thheir feet tucked up off the floor. Only the press %eta lions people from London tripped about on elegant heels and even seemed to like it. In the downstairs halls the highlights of the sho- w were on display. There were boots to pro- • industrial toes ('9 cwt. dropped on toe from ign of 4 ft. saved foot') and a superb handout 1,),h0t3graph of an accident prevention officer u4Iancing four enormous policemen on his `IfetY-boots. There were Juke Box Mules at £200 that played a tune as they ground the \'Inder into the foot; there was a pair of mink .sli- PPers with a real diamond on them, and even- Shoes with a compass in the heel for finding eS Way home from parties. the h,,lere was also Mr. Stan Bartholomiou, both 'nan and his works. Stan is the enterprising \treet• r•.

who makes the incredibly pointed custom-

• lIt • shoes in which teenagers keep other teen- • at arm's length ('At the Press Ball in 'anlsworth.' said a PRO, 'they had to dance apare). The shoes, called winklepickers, Inok like something out of Grimm's fairy tales, and

he makes 300 of them a week, charging

u .)s. for girls shoes, f.4 10s. for boys'. There „ certain irony in his trade, for most mothers A • "iu go to almost any lengths to stop their u_

ghters wearing anything so preposterous. Yet

1°s- for a shoe made to fit is excellent value. 4hd Lhe long toes do no harm to the foolt; con- 'enti °nal low-cut teenage flatties. on the other "and, do positive damage, as they have to be too sn 'at in order to stay on the foot at all. Mere were absolutely no historical ex- ps. Last year Queen Victoria's wedding Were 'lost for two Whole days before they came to light in the hotel dustbin. This was largely written off as a publicity stunt at the time, but the organiser still grows wild-eyed at the memory. 'They were just little scraps of silk with no soles,' they said. 'They came in a Heinz box and we threw them out with the tissue paper.'

As well as the standing display, there was a walking fashion show in which we were all sup- posed to keep our eyes at ground level. It was doubtful if all the men did so: one model, wittily chosen to show off the, tougher country numbers, wiggled her golfing skirt as if in the front row of the Folies; for our part, we got at least one male model who neither smirked nor blushed, but showed off his clothes with that overweening nonchalance that vain men affect in real life.

In the front row of the audience there were five pairs of shoes on view, with women inside: comprising How To, and How Not To and How They Used To. The first was a good quality.cotn- fortable pair of fresh-looking flat-heeled shoes that went well with the county personality above; and at the end of the row was a smart grey-haired woman in a fine narrow pair of high-heeled shoes that did her, credit; possibly they were agony, but she certainly did not show it. But in between there were three women—one in stilt heels and peep toes, two others in round-toed, thick-heeled shoes two sizes too small who were obviously suffering the tortures of the damned in order to look awful : wearing, in the Freudian misprint of the handout, medium high hells for town.

What makes a shoe hell is not necessarily the height at all: models in flatties and cowgirls in stilettoes suffer about equally from the unaccus- tomed stress. People in rounded toes are com- fortable—they had better be. And people who have added the length of a point to their normal foot-length are comfortable too. But those who have tried to , compromise, who have a pointed toe on a 'not too long' foot, who have cherished the idea of small feet—it is they who, un- adapted to their own times, look down in anguish.

By the end of the show it was clear what the autumn styles would be like. Heels two and a half inches high and long spiky toes continue—and female feet will continue to glow, with opalised gunmetal and drey bronze; there is a deep grape- bloom purple shade for those who want to wear the autumn's promotion colour African Violets but draw the line at going all mauve around the feet. Actually this pearlised effect is not new : I talked to a leather man in the train who said he had tried to introduce it ten years ago: 'But no one was interested. Now if I have something new I start it in Italy or America--then they all want it here too.'

In men's shoes, the smart co-respondent will be wearing metallic-looking shoes in mock alligator (only another lounge lizard would know the difference); city executives may affect charcoal brown or dull olive-brown. Chukka boots are back in fasklion,thanks to the patronage of Jones the Photo. It seems as if the Royal men are more influential in the footwear world than the Royal ladies: Prince Philip, one remembers, started the idea of black suede shoes for evening, whereas the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret carried a torch for peep toes, ankle straps and platform soles long after they had been discontinued else- where. The men's shoe manufacturers were ex, cited about a new vulcanisation process, which can weld a composition sole. on to an expensive upper for half the price of an all-leather shoe. They repair badly but last well.

In any case repairing seems to be becoming less and less important to the shoe trade-::- over- whelmingly so for women's shoes. A .n)anufac- turer still grumbled. We have too good a.repair service in this country' (we do?), but itiooks as if it will soon be as archaic to have a, .shoe re- soled as to have a hat reblocked or an.umbrella re-covered. The repair idea, after all, assumes that some parts of a thing wear out much faster than others; if the whole shoe is fragile, Only the heels are worth repairing at all. It is quite clear that there has been a complete revolution since the days when shoes were something you bOught to last, that were worth spending a lot of money on, that you chose in a ,good serviceable dark shade to go with everything. Nowadays expensive fashion shoes wear no better than cheap ones, and are not necessarily. more comfortable; they are expected to blend perfectly with a particular outfit, and come in light.vulnerable colours even through the winter. Aind their fashiOn's Change fast: you can sometimes get away with a live- year-old dress, but shoes have to be twenty-five

years old to look at all smart again. ,

Only one mutter disturbed the booming con- tent of the manufacturers: the news from Italy. that women there are beginning to go !back to rounded toes. It looks as if it woukl- be.a year or two before anything but spikes look' at. all smart here; when it happens, presumably, there will be as much protest at it as there was over 'going back to points.' Women are like that.