Shoeperwoman to the Rescue: the right shoes for the dress

Don’t worry, you haven’t stumbled onto the wrong website by mistake: the dress you see above is the subject of a reader question, which I’m hoping you can all help me solve!

Lizzi writes:

I really need your help! I recently bought this dress [above]

I want to wear it to my year 11 prom but I can’t seem to find any shoes that I think will go with it. If you have any spare time, could you help me with it? I love high high heels and I guess my price range is up to about £35-40.

Thank you so much in advance
Lizzi
x

First of all: gorgeous dress!

When it comes to formal dressing and brightly coloured dresses, my instinct is generally to stick with metallic shoes, which have a nice, dressed-up feel to them, and which also have the benefit of working with just about any colour of dress, so you can wear them over and over again, and don’t get stuck buying a pair of shoes that you’ll wear once and never again. I think silver would look particularly nice with the colour of this dress (Although any metallic would also do), but if you want to try something a little more interesting, you could always go for a bold, contrasting colour, like purple or fuchsia.

I’m guessing you’re from the UK, so with a budget of up to £40, the main suspects here would be the likes of Dorothy Perkins, New Look, Miss Selfridge, Debenhams’ Red Herring range, M&S or Next. All of those should have shoes within that price range, and if you have one near you, I’d also recommend checking out TK Maxx. It can be a bit hit and miss, but if you get it on a good day, you can find shoes from more expensive brands like Dune, Moda in Pelle, Steve Madden, etc, for anything from £20 upwards.

Personal taste is obviously a huge factor in this, and I’ve no idea what kind of shoes you normally go for, but here are just a few suggestions:

£28, Red Herring at Debenhams

£30, Dorothy Perkins (not available online, but should be available in-store)

£28, Red Herring at Debenhams

Of course, don’t discount good ol’ black pumps, either:

£32, Next

The classic shape of the dress means that you can go for a more elaborate shoe, if you want to, but the super-simple approach could also work:

£30, New Look

Over to the readers: anyone got any suggestions for Lizzi?