Spring Style Essentials

How to Style New Season Footwear 

As the flowers begin to bloom, fashion begins to re-invent. Bigger shapes, and brighter colours hit the runways and whilst the spectacle of it all is mesmerising, it can leave us feeling overwhelmed when looking to some of the big designers for style inspiration. So heres some style advice, predicting some up and coming trends and showcasing our new season footwear. 

Recently we had the pleasure of featuring some of our shoes on the Ireland AM fashion segment. With outfits styled by the lovely Lorna Weightman, the segment revealed a huge resurgence in styling from the past. Now, typically no matter the season, there is always a nod to past stylings be it the leather of the nineties or the slingback of the eighties, but recently we are beginning to see a medley of the eras. This medley has led to some pretty spectacular creations stomping down the runway. 

 Fig 1 & 2: Dior SS22 from Vogue.co.uk

Overall this feel for nostalgia has led to designers exploring two very opposite lanes: maximising or minimising. Whether it’s a huge oversized jumper from Raf Simmons or the tiny belt skirts from Miu Miu designers are beginning to become more playful when it comes to era / genre blending, and this holds true for footwear too. If it’s not a sleek 70’s gladiator sandal, it's most likely a 00’s chunky sneaker. Below are some examples from our Ireland Am shoot that justify this and we think it’ll provide some style inspo for the upcoming season. 

 The yellow XTi sandal (also available in black) is the perfect cherry on top for giving your outfit that 70’s vibe whilst the Gola Grandslam runners, with their colour blocking and platform heel is a dream for adding or continuing the volume of the outfit. 

  Fig 3 & 4: Ireland Am featuring PurpleTag shoes

As well as this blend between both eras and aesthetics we are also beginning to see the idea of ‘the uniform’ appear more and more both in shop windows and catwalks. Traditionally speaking ‘the uniform’ usually pertains to smart casual business wear, typically monochromatic and hosts very little opportunity for colour, but, it’s not spring if we don’t have a splash of colour is it? Below is an example that features one of our brand new Skechers styles that we think encompasses the perfect uniform with that splash of colour.

Fig 5: Ireland Am featuring PurpleTag shoes       

The combination of the blues makes the outfit so versatile as the cohesive nature of the outfit make it professional whilst the mixture of the baby blue and the dark navy give something a little bit extra and make it fun. It’s also great to experiment with a variety of colours and really delve into a world of colour this spring time.

Fig 6: Chloé SS22 & MSGM SS22 from Vogue.com

Now that we’ve explored some current season style inspiration, it's time we took a look to the future, so here are our trend predictions for the remainder of 2022.  

1.  As each year turns over both designers and consumers find themselves looking to the past for inspiration, at PurpleTag we believe that it’s time to turn our thoughts to imagining the future; reinventing futurism. From this we believe that we are going to see a lot more metallics pop up both in colour and texture but possibly in a more refined version than that of the Y2K era. See some examples below. 

 Fig 7 & 8: Tamaris Runners and Lunar Sandals from PurpleTag Shoes

   2.    When playing around with style and fashion, colour can be a recurring issue, what's in season, what suits my hair, my skin, and whatnot. And with the warmer seasons approaching colour seems to be the only thing on any stylist's mind. But when meddling in the world colour, we often find ourselves being restrictive with seasonal colours. We project that  seasonal colours will matter less and we will begin to see a trans-seasonal colour palette, one with hot pinks in the winter and neutral, tones in the summer. 

Fig 9 & 10: S Oliver ankle boots and Skechers Runners from PurpleTag Shoes

 3.  Whilst this trans-seasonal colour swapping begins we also think that one colour is going to dominate them all and has already begun its fight for dominance. Green is such a positive colour to have within your wardrobe, it gives us a sense of safety and comfort and can give us an overall feeling of pushing forward, which considering the current pandemic is definitely one we need. We have seen green being picked up as a signature by brands such as Bottega Veneta but it has also begun to crop up in many other collections and is soon on its way to being the colour of the year whether it’s bottle green or laurel. 

 Fig 11 & 12: Amy Huberman Ankle Boots and Rieker Mens Runners from PurpleTag Shoes

We hope that in the coming weeks and months that our advice can serve you well and be sure to keep an eye out for our blog space and our home page for even more advice as well as some new arrivals. 

With Love, 

PurpleTag Shoes