3.1 Phillip LIm Shoes

I have a hard time finding sandals that I like during the warm months, and until I saw the 3.1 Phillip Lim Domina Sandals on Net-a-Porter yesterday, I couldn’t figure out exactly why that was. Everyone loses their mind over espadrilles and gladiator flats and all kinds of other things, so why not me? Simple: My wardrobe is entirely based on black and grey, while most hardcore summer shoes are anchored in a palette of tan and beige. I don’t get faint when I see most sandals because I could never picture myself wearing them. Obviously, Phillip Lim has done my spring wardrobe a great favor.

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As far as footwear collections go, 3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2011 is perhaps the very definition of “a mixed bag.” Within this single line, there are shoes I’d love to own, shoes I’d love to try on and shoes that I’d love to shoot into the sun, never to harass mankind again. But as long as there are enough of the former kinds, the latter really doesn’t matter.

My curiosities are mainly focused on a set of sandals that I’ve come to think of as the anti-peep-toes. Other than a pair of subdued metallic black ankle boots, these shoes are easily the best of the collection and the most interesting to look at. I’m not sure how much fun they’d be to wear, but I’d be willing to take the metallic cobalt pair for a ride to find out. On the other hand, the mumsy choked pumps in camel and black need to show themselves the door.

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The thing that I appreciate the most about Phillip Lim is that his shoes always hold my attention for more than the fraction of a moment that it takes me to decide whether or not I’m interested in most designs. Even if I may not like a particular design of Lim’s, his footwear is always something that I want to investigate further and think about for longer than most other shoes on the mass market.

The 3.1 Phillip Lim Calder T-Strap is a perfect illustration of why that is. Lim has taken a traditional shape with which we’re all well familiar and changed its architecture ever so slightly to make it seem new, and although I’d have to see this shoe on a foot before I could make a final determination, I think the change is a good one.

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When we first took a look at 3.1 Phillip Lim’s simple, modern take on the traditional Mary Jane, I wondered if the brand would continue to impress me with its footwear or if that particular shoe was just a singular flash of brilliance. Well, I should have known – just like Lim’s party dresses continue to intrigue and delight, his shoes show no sign of future disappointment.

The 3.1 Phillip Lim Dee Dee Ankle Bootie is similar to the oh-so-successful Mary Jane in one very important way: it takes a simple shoe that most women have in their closets and adds just enough detail to make it interesting without compromising the essential wearability and versatility of something like a black suede bootie.

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If you had asked me a week ago if I thought that there was anything interesting left to do with a mary jane, I would have told you that there probably wasn’t. After one sees Miu Miu’s chunky 60s silk mary janes with white birds all over them, one tends to think that the style has reached its logical aesthetic limit. One would be wrong (and I would be wrong as well).

I have a great love for 3.1 Phillip Lim’s modern, youth-oriented ready-to-wear but have been somewhat less enthusiastic about the brand’s handbags. As far as shoes go, after seeing the 3.1 Phillip Lim Peep Show Mary Jane, I can officially say that I’m in love. Lim looked at the traditional shape of the shoe, change one thing and managed to make it completely modern and interesting.

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