Paris Fashion Week has done it again — it has put velvet on feet.
At the Zimmermann front row on October 5th, Karen Elson paired her floral lace with mustard-yellow velvet mules, and the fashion press swooned on cue. It is not an isolated sighting, either: this season’s fall shoe roundups have put slipper mules and soft loafers on the moment list. The velvet slipper is officially back.
Now I must plant my flag, because someone has to. The mule is the wrong execution of this trend.
A mule is a house slipper that escaped. It has no heel cup and no allegiance to your foot. It shuffles. It slides off in the rain, claps down the pavement like applause you never asked for, and strands you the moment the evening goes anywhere beyond a carpet. A mule is a shoe designed to be photographed sitting down.
The velvet loafer is the same seduction with a spine. It stays on. It carries you from the front row to the dinner to the dance floor — which is the entire point of a shoe. Elson’s mules looked wonderful in the photographs. I would wager they looked less wonderful at one in the morning.
Here is what interests me: the runway’s velvet mules arrive in mustard yellow at prices that make your eyes water. The honest answer to this trend is not the mule at all — it is the velvet loafer, made to order, in a color that actually lives in your wardrobe. Black for evening, navy for everything, blush pink if you are feeling brave. A velvet loafer pairs with the same lace the front row is wearing; it simply also pairs with the rest of your life.
Ours are made to order, one pair at a time — you choose the velvet, the piping, the finish. No mustard-yellow ultimatums. When you are ready, Design Your Pair and wear the trend instead of sitting in it.
Let the mule keep its house arrest. The rest of us have somewhere to go.
— Samuel Ashworth
