Comfort is the sole aim
The perfect affordable velvet jacket has arrived, berets are cool and high street shoes get a boost.
It has been a dramatic week for Gap. First, the reports that some of its suppliers have been subcontracting to manufacturers who employ children in India, then the swift promise to sever links with those factories. Pierre Hardy, who designs the shoes at Balenciaga and Hermès that account for some of the most creatively challenging ideas on the catwalks and also heads up his own line of accessories, has huge faith in the brand. “It’s iconic, isn’t it? Everyone can picture Gap’s aesthetics - that clean, American, slightly Seventies thing.”
You would expect Hardy to be an enthusiast. His first collaboration with Gap - a pair of patent platform sandals and two flat pumps, manufactured in various colours in Brazil - goes on sale tomorrow. Together with the arresting Gap ads in which he is starring this autumn, these are likely to put paid to his status as a designer revered by the cognoscenti. At £55 and up, they exude a desirability too often missing from high-street shoes - and they’re comfortable.
“Comfort - that’s the first thing women comment on, always. Even when they’re in my studio trying on 10-cm heels. It’s as if they have to justify the purchase every time,” Hardy observes. “But yes, these are comfortable. It’s because of the padded soles, something I wanted to do with my own line for years, but never quite managed.”
At 51, he never trained as a shoe designer, but as an arts graduate he found their sculptural qualities irresistible. “Unlike clothing, shoes aren’t really altered by the body wearing them. It comes down to being able to control the finished effect better, which sounds a bit freakish, I suppose.”
The neatest of men, which implies considerable control, Hardy suggests that one reason women have developed a seemingly excessive taste for shoes in the past decade is that “while men are happy to wear vintage shoes, old and well looked-after, for a woman a shoe is like make-up, it has to be pristine and fresh. It’s a way for her to feel powerful and renewed, although in reality it makes her fragile when they’re so high.”
Hardy is happy designing flats, as is testified by this taster collection (and the ten styles he has produced for Gap for next spring, including a gladiator sandal that nails the season).
“Flat can be as much a statement as high. What’s difficult is medium – and what seemed high three years ago looks medium now. We keep pushing to extremes.” Not that he’s worried. “Women are prepared to put up with a certain amount of pain to look good,” he says, “and no shoe is as painful as plastic surgery.”
story and image from timesonline.co.uk
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