Thursday, March 15, 2007

From the sublime to the ridiculous

Having tried and failed to post pictures of jaw-droppingly wonderful Lanvin dresses at the weekend (watch this space), and with my head full of pleasant thoughts of the new season which, despite veering off towards the unwearable (sky high spring heel shoes, lucite wedges and violent blue patent leather everywhere you look), has shown some interesting signs of being more than just a barely-disguised copy of, sorry hommage to, the 60s, the 80s, let-them-eat-cake, whatever, I was walking through Hong Kong's International Finance Centre this morning. Imagine my distress when I passed a man in a formal, dark blue pinstriped business suit wearing a pair of pink Crocs.

Not a clog, not a flip-flop, not a water shoe - it's a fully fledged abomination and the hands-down, top-ranking, toe-curling candidate for ugliest footwear ever designed.

Yet this guy had this smug look on his face, the look of a self-proclaimed iconoclast: (a) hey! check out my cool shoes! (b) They're the funky sting in the tail of my formal attire! (c) Baudrillard's not dead!

All I can say is: (a) Yes I have (though I dearly wish I'd never set eyes on you). (b) No they're not. They are a scourge of humankind. (3) Yes he is.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have really enjoyed reading through your blog. Are you a Scot living in Hong Kong? I only ask because I'm Scottish and in your writing I'm feeling a lot of that fabulous acerbic wit that us Scots have mastered, plus I see references to places like Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Anyway, very interesting articles indeed, thank you for sharing.

LottieP said...

Thanks for your kind comments, QM. I grew up in East Lothian, went to university in Glasgow and have been in Hong Kong for the last four years.

Keep reading (and commenting) - it's nice to know what people think of what I'm writing (lurkers, take note!)

Charlotte said...

Thanks for finding me, and leading me to your delightful blog. Glad to find another Crocs-loather on the planet! I went back home to South Africa last year, and found EVERYONE wearing them. I was shocked and horrifed. BUt your tale is the worst - Crocs with a suit is so not a good look.