Pom poms, are, I suspect, one of those ‘Marmite’ features on shoes: you either love ’em or hate ’em.
Speaking for myself, I always associate pom poms with clown shoes. I can’t help it: no matter how beautiful or elegant the shoes themselves are (And I think the two examples on this page are both beautiful and elegant, no question…), if there’s a giant pom pom anywhere on the shoe, I’m going to be thinking of clowns. And clowns scare me.
In the case of the sandals shown above, there’s not just one giant pom pom, but four of them. And they’re all in bright, primary colours, which gives the classic, strappy sandal underneath, a totally different feel than would otherwise be the case. The pumps, on the other hand, are slightly more retrained – if “restrained” is a word you can ever really use to describe a bright blue shoe with an equally bright yellow pom pom on the front – having just one embellishment. I actually quite like them to look at, but don’t think I’d have a whole lot of success styling them!
Perhaps the biggest issue with these shoes, however, is the fact that the pom poms are real fur. Now, I’m not a vegetarian, and I do wear leather, which I realise makes me the world’s biggest hypocrite, but I just couldn’t bring myself to wear real fur – especially when there are so many good, fake fur alternatives to it these days. I say this, not to start an argument, but because I’ve noticed an increasing amount of real fur being used on shoes and clothing over the past few years, and this season there are tons of furry shoes out there. I’ll be interested to know what you all think of that, but also to hear what you think of these shoes in general.
Would you wear them? And if so: how?
I’d probably have to say no to the pom poms. Which is a shame as I’m loving the purple shoes underneath.
Yeah, I’m basically with you on the fur thing. It just seems very wasteful and pointless when fake fur is readily available and potentially just as nice. Leather substitutes tend to be distinctly lower quality and less durable; most people I know who buy leather buy it for those reasons, with style being secondary. But fur-fashion just seems to be a status symbol. Especially on not-particularly-subtle shoes like these, which, no matter how you feel about them (not positively, in my case), are only ever going to get limited use. Of all the possible reasons for slaughter, vanity is pretty low on my list of acceptability, personally.
I also eat meat and wear real leather (when it’s affordable). But I can’t wear real fur either. …And I find these shoes so tacky, it makes it worse. Somehow I’d feel better if the heels were elegant!