Trending: 'flatform' shoes

A hybrid of platforms and flat shoes, 'flatforms' have been dubbed the shoe of 2011.

BY Phong Luu | 02 February 2011

Photo: betterthanstyle.com

Barely have we processed clogs as the "Hell, really?" hot shoes of 2010 before our brains are required to latch onto another equally tricksy footwear concept: the 'flatform'.

A hybrid of a shoe with the Goliathan height of platforms but the comfort of flatties, flatforms had serious fashion backing from the likes of Prada and Chanel at the spring/summer 2011 shows. "How marvellously clever," fashion types cooed. "Five-inch heels without the cripple factor. J'adore how Herr Lagerfeld refreshes his pretty dresses by pairing them with flatforms."

In pictures: flatforms on the catwalk

Cut to Jo Public and the question mark hovering above her head, wondering how, or indeed if, she should proceed. Hear ye, hear ye, then, for the arguments for and against.

Shop our pick of 'flatforms'

In support, there's the aforementioned height-without-pain clause. Claps should also be sounded for its part in re-igniting the flat-shoes movement, which, though still going strong, had somewhat stagnated somewhere between brogues and ballet pumps. It gets a bonus gold star, too, for referencing and rendering the obscure chopine, a towering platform shoe worn by courtesans in Europe in the 15th century, in a more wearable form (necessary elevation for all those maxi lengths).

Onwards to the opposition, and, although there's just one, it's a big fat negative: they really are quite ugly, the Quasimodos of footwear, if you will. Elegant these ain't. Tellingly, celebrities have yet to be papped in them, despite having first dibs on the freshest looks off the runway before us plebs (flatforms were shown last October), though, on balance, it did take Alexa Chung nearly half a year from the time clogs were aired on the catwalk to wearing them on the cover of Vogue in March 2010. Others like Rachel Bilson and Sarah Jessica Parker swiftly followed suit. Where one leads…

Shop platform shoes at the Telegraph Fashion Shop