Giuseppe Zanotti gold mirror-effect pointed pumps, £475

I had to look twice at these shoes to make sure what I was looking at WAS actually a pair of shoes, and not some kind of shoe-shaped ornament. Not only are they gold in colour, they actually look like they’ve been carved out of solid gold themselves, don’t you think?

The slightly angular shape of the heel and toe adds to that effect: as elegant as they are, they’re definitely something “rough hewn” about the execution, and if I happened to own a pair, I’d be tempted to leave at least one of them sitting out on display somewhere, looking a bit like a trophy. In fact, if there was a shoe-equivalent of the Oscars (and there really SHOULD be a shoe equivalent of the Oscars, don’t you think?), these would be the equivalent of the Oscar statuette.

They are, however, actually footwear, so it would be a shame not to wear them, as well as simply admiring them. The mirrored leather is partly responsible for that “block of gold” effect, and would make these real show-stoppers, regardless of what the rest of the shoe looked like.

I’m fond of telling you that gold goes with everything: I stand by that, but I thought these shoes had such a fairytale feel to them, they deserved to be styled with an equally OTT outfit:

♥  Warehouse dress   ♥   RED Valentino clutch bag   ♥   Lanvin choker   ♥   House of Harlow cocktail ring  ♥  Charlotte Tilbury lipstick 

Red and gold is one of those combinations some people consider too “festive” to wear during the rest of year: I’ve never been a fan of restricting myself to only those colours that are deemed to be “seasonally appropriate”, though (or of “festive” dressing, actually), so I can’t see any reason to start now!