Charlotte Olympia ‘Plain Sailing’ nautical canvas pumps, $676
As much as I love the nautical look, there’s no denying it can be all too easy to stray into “costume” territory if you embrace the look a little too enthusiastically, and lord knows, Charlotte Olympia has a tendency to head that way anyway. This is a brand most commonly associated with the “novelty” shoe (not to mention with gigantic platforms), so I think some congratulations are in order for the creation of these very ladylike slingbacks, which are just on the right side of “costumey”.
These are called ‘Plain Sailing’, and obviously take inspiration from the classic sailor’s uniform, with fresh blue and white colourway, and a fold-over collar. The upper is a summery canvas, which will be cool to wear on a hot summer’s day, although you’re probably going to want to avoid any rainy ones – I really don’t fancy the chances of pristine white canvas against mud, do you?
These are currently on sale at My Theresa: they’re actually reduced by 30%, but as that still leaves them at $676, it’s probably not a discount that’ll make much difference for most of us. I really love the look of these, though, and think they’d be the perfect compliment to the nautical capsule wardrobe I wrote about recently.
What to wear with nautical shoes?
You could, of course, neatly avoid any accusations of sailor-style fancy dress, by going for a totally NON-nautically-inspired outfit: the shoes are simple enough to work with a lot of different styles, after all. You call know I’m not going to do that, though, don’t you? No matter how you style them, these shoes will always have a nautical feel to them, and you know what they say: if you can’t beat ’em…
Nautical summer look with white jeans and stripe top:
♥ Frame Denim white cropped jeans ♥ Jaeger stripe top ♥ Monsoon navy blazer ♥ French Connection tote bag ♥ C Wonder iPhone case
Wow, they are absolutely wonderful, I love them, that “collar” detail is lovely! If they were leather instead of canvas and 10 times cheaper, I’d buy them in a flash :)!
I’m not paying that much money for some canvas shoes but I like them a lot.