Fantasy footwear

If money was no object, these are what I'd be wearing this summer: wooden-heeled and beaded leather wedges by Stella McCartney. They are actually from 2008, but I could live with that...

Petticoat tales

Sunday morning in east London, a trip to Petticoat Lane. Everything is cheap, cheerful, and most of all, colourful.


ShoeClub is not normally an advocate of ballet flats. Not that there's anything intrinsically wrong with them. I personally have as many ballet flats as the next woman (just checked – eleven pairs. That's about average, right?) It's just they are so ubiquitous, so predictable, so... boring (thank you Kate Moss.) However, an exception must be made when they are as pretty as these. The lady in the top picture (suedette, applique, sequins glinting in the sunshine) had bought them last week in Paris: the girl wearing the gorgeous satin ones above offered to take them off to give me a closer look.

This girl was bemused when I asked to shoot her gladiators. ''You can get them at Peacocks,'' she said. Maybe, but the fabulous pedicure is what really makes this look.

The world's most basic footwear – a flat sole and a couple of straps holding it on her foot – but in this case the straps were made of ribbon, lace, ric-rac, and metal discs, and the wearer had painted her nails in a variety of matching tones. Not the clearest of photos, you'll have to take my word for it: very, very cool.