Monk-strap shoes designed for women are having a moment. Here’s our guide for where to find them – and what to wear them with
BY Kate Bussmann
15 October 2013
Russell Bromley’s double-strap Grosvenors (£175)
Product Code: 122911
£175
If you’ve been in a high street shoe shop lately, you’ll have seen them, but you might not know what they’re called. Monk-strap shoes – typically a flat, plain leather shoe with a single or double strap that buckles to the side – are suddenly everywhere. If the last 12 months were all about slippers, they now have a successor.
Monk-straps have been in the spotlight in menswear for a couple of seasons, but my first encounter with the womenswear take on the trend was a few weeks ago, on the feet of a chic French actress I was interviewing. Hers came from
Church’s
, and looked modern and edgy with a black suit. Then last week, as the Topshop slippers I lived in all summer finally gave up the ghost, I saw the
Russell Bromley Grosvenors
(£175) on a book publicist, who wore them with skinny jeans and loved them so much she was planning to buy them in another colour.
And when I went shopping to replace my flats, it became clear that they are the grey squirrel of the season, edging out slippers and encroaching on territory formerly claimed by brogues and loafers. Since the Grosvenors appeared in Russell Bromley’s autumn/winter ad campaign, they’ve been selling out in some sizes, although they’ll order them in if you ask.
Top Monk, £65 by Office
Office has 11 different styles for women, ranging from the
Top Monk
(£65) with its steel-edged pointy toe and chunky buckle, to the
Jane Monk
(£100), which replaces buckles with subtle stud fastenings. KG by Kurt Geiger’s Luthers (£120) come in
punky black and white
or
futuristic metallic pewter,
and
Carvela’s Almond patent leather monk straps
have a mid heel (£110, now reduced to £88). Even Clarks are in on the ground floor, with the
Hamble Park
(£54.99) in black or tan with punched leather detailing.
Luther, £120 by Kurt Geiger
It’s not the first time women have fallen for them. “In the 1950s they were an alternative to the heavy brothel creeper, and girls did wear them, as did goths in the 1980s,” says
Dr Rebecca Arnold, Oak Foundation Lecturer in History of Dress and Textiles at the Courtauld Institute of Art
.
So how do you wear monk-straps now? Skinny jeans or narrow trousers cropped above the ankle work well, as does a sharp knee-length pencil skirt (
as styled by J Crew in their take on the trend
). But not everyone’s falling for them. “I think the buckles are ugly,” says The Telegraph’s own
Kate Finnigan
. “I’m sticking with brogues.”
Monk-straps: the shoe of the season?
0 comments:
Post a Comment