TWENTY FOUR HAITCH slingbacks, court shoes and evening bags
A slingback is the shoe closed at the toe and open at the heel, held by a strap that passes behind the heel bone: it is the model most present on this page. Compared with a court shoe, which stays on the foot by shape alone, the strap adds one point of hold and allows half a size of margin; compared with a sandal it keeps the forefoot covered. The heel remains the variable that decides real use: below six centimetres a formal shoe carries a whole evening, above eight it is worth planning for part of the evening seated.
Decorated surfaces are the signature of this collection: fabrics with applied stones, printed vegan leather, velvet. Each asks for different care and none tolerates water. Applied stones are glued to a backing, so the shoe should never be left near a heat source: it is heat, not use, that makes the bonding give. Velvet is revived dry with a soft brush in the direction of the pile, whereas a stain dabbed with water leaves a tidemark that stays.
The uppers on this page are in vegan leather or fabric, not leather, and the difference is not aesthetic but behavioural. Vegan leather does not give with wear and does not take the shape of the foot, so the size you try on is the size you keep, while a leather widens by about half a size over the first outings. On a formal shoe, worn for a few hours but all in one go, that difference shows immediately: try it on at the end of the day, when the foot is at its fullest, and do not count on a break-in that will not come.
The bags pick up the same materials in a hand-held format. On an evening bag the useful measurement is not the volume but the width of the opening: a rigid structure that does not open far enough forces you to take everything out to find one thing. The other point to look at is where the chain or handle attaches, which is the first part to give when the bag is set down on its side on a table rather than laid flat.
To compare this selection with the rest of the occasionwear range you can see the women's court shoes and the women's bags.
