When trying to figure out what will be the big It Shoe of the upcoming season, Isabel Marant is lately as good a place to start as any. Marant seems to know exactly what fashionable people the world over want to put on their bodies, and she has no problem taking that vision and turning it into totally covetable clothing, shoes and accessories. Despite the fact that Marant’s business is based in France, for Isabel Marant Fall 2012, she had an entirely different Paris in mind: Paris, Texas.

Marant’s clothes have played with notions of the American West for quite some time, so this foray into cowboy culture is not exactly unexpected. The shoes in particular show it very clearly: pointed-toe ankle booties festooned with the intricate stitching of cowboy boots, suede pumps appliquéd with different colored trim in order to mimic the button-down shirts in any Western wear store. Marant’s take, of course, is decided chic and feminine; somehow, she’s able to mix the two ideas without totally destroying either of them. No wonder everything she makes sells out so quickly.

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At this juncture, I don’t think it will strike anyone as surprising to call Bill Gaytten’s collections for Dior “safe.” After all, just look at Dior Fall 2012, specifically its shoes: What’s more unoffensive than a literal take on ballerina chic? While the critics among as might use words like “safe” and “unoffensive” as backhanded insults, though, those descriptors often turn into profits when a brand has a customer base as dedicated as Dior’s. These shoes may not be thought-provoking, but for a certain woman, they’re very wearable.

Which is not to say that they’re comfortable-looking; on the contrary, they look like Dior’s shoemakers are attempting to get the wearer as close to en pointe as possible. These designs have a classic style, though, and in the luxurious neutrals that we saw on the runway, they’ll undoubtedly sell well to people who aren’t particularly interested in the behind-the-scenes business machinations of the fashion industry. Luckily for Dior, that’s a sizable group of people.

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After seeing the shoes of Balenciaga Fall 2012, I’m ready to make a somewhat significant declaration: wearability is, without a doubt, the biggest shoe trend of Fall 2012. We’ll pause for a second while your feet, ankles and calves celebrate in relief.

Balenciaga’s shoes, if anything, are known for being back-breakingly tall. The first pair of heels that made my eyes wide with confusion over how anyone ever walked in them was a pair of pink Balenciagas in the pages of Vogue back when I was in college. This collection, though, is full of heels that, while still in the three-to-four inch rage, are considerably shorter than the five- and six-inchers that the brand is known for. Some of the shorter heels are also basically wedges, which means they’re likely the most comfortable runway heels that Balenciaga has shown since the brand put its spin on Doc Martens. Both Dolce & Gabbana and Christian Louboutin have shown relatively wearable heels so far this season, so I’m ready to call it a full-on trend, and a welcome one at that.

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If Christian Louboutin’s fashion week shoes are an indicator of what we can expect for the shoe master’s Fall 2012 collection at large, then get ready for lots of texture. Christian Louboutin for Jonathan Saunders Fall 2012, like Louboutin’s collection for Mary Katrantzou before it, is heavy on calfhair and suede. While Katrantzou’s shoes tended toward brights, though, this set of Louboutins is much more jewel-toned.

Also of note is the lack of stilettos. Instead, Louboutin opted for a more forgiving knife-edge heel, which might not tempt some of his established customers but will probably make this set of designs more palatable to a wide audience. The slingback pumps with little bows at the vamp were particularly fetching.

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With perhaps the exception of the cap-toed ballerina flat, Chanel’s shoes aren’t quite as iconic and sought-after as its handbags, which is why we don’t cover the brand as extensively on TalkShoes as we do on PurseBlog. Every now and then, though, Chanel comes up with a shoe that we like to put up for discussion. In fact, the Chanel Coral Heel Sandal caught our eye so much that we decided to take a brief break from fashion show coverage to post about it.

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Dolce & Gabbana usually isn’t a brand known specifically for its shoes, but the footwear of Dolce & Gabbana Fall 2012 is worth noting. If only the brand had applied the same kind of intricate religious embellishment to its handbags, I’d be a completely happy camper. As it is, I’m still pretty happy with the shoes.

After seasons of ever-rising heel heights, the thing that struck me most about this collection is that most of the shoes look like you’d actually be able to wear them for a little while without hating yourself for pulling them out of the closet. The heels are a few millimeters thicker and noticeably shorter than the stilettos that have been inescapable for quite some time, and Dolce deserves credit for making interesting shoes that perhaps won’t punish their wearers quite as much as they would have in seasons past. It’s a step, both figuratively and literally, in the right direction.

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Images via Vogue.com

Swan songs are always sad in fashion, but they’re especially sad when a designer has done work for a brand as wonderful as Raf Simons’ work for Jil Sander. News broke on Friday that Jil Sander Fall 2012 would be Simons’ last outing with the brand, which founder and namesake Jil Sander would take over starting immediately. The widely held speculation of the moment is that Raf is headed to Dior, but he was also rumored to be headed to YSL before ex-Dior Homme designer Hedi Slimane was announced for that spot, shortly after Sander’s return to Jil Sander was announced. It’s been a week of very fashionable Musical Chairs, and it’s not over yet.

With that in mind, here is Simons’ last collection of shoes for Jil Sander. They’re very good, in a very Simons/Sander way – classic shapes with futuristic, utterly modern flourishes. Pumps with color-changing metallic accents. Slingbacks with neon piping. And yet, even with so many elements combined on each shoe, the look is still effortless. Here’s hoping that Raf Simons is announced at Dior very, very soon, as much for Dior’s sake as Simons’. I’d love to see his modern take on the New Look.

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Images via Vogue.com

For me, Prada Fall 2012 is one of those collections of shoes that must be embraced not in spite of its weirdness, but because of it. For fall, Miuccia took a decidedly 60s and 70s turn, and the shoes reflect that with their flared heels, harvest-y colors and retro patterns. Things got absolutely Fluevogian at times, except that the heels were so high that some of the models struggled to walk while sinking in to the bright purple runway carpet.

Likely the most controversial segments of the line will be the shoes that look like they were dipped halfway in molten wax and left to dry, creating a hard, matte halfshell around the basic leather shoe. As always, Prada gets points for originality; I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a shoe with exactly that kind of treatment before. The look is definitely of the Fashion People Only variety, but that’s always where Miuccia has excelled anyway.

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Images via Vogue.com

The shoes that Christian Louboutin provides for Mary Katrantzou’s runway collections every season seem to often end up produced at part of Louboutin’s standard line (which is more than I can say for much of Louboutin’s excellent work with Jonathan Saunders, sadly), so let’s take a look at Christian Louboutin x Mary Katrantzou Fall 2012, shall we? The shoes took on a fairly restrained look with winding laces, which provided a nice counterpoint to Katrantzou’s modern, incredibly graphic clothing.

When it comes to haircalf, I vastly prefer bright colors to tan, which tends to look a bit mangy and a little too uncannily like the animal from which it came. Brights, on the other hand, bring out the texture in the material without making it look equine. I’d say that all of these variations stand a good chance of hitting store shelves come fall.

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Images via Vogue.com

Why don’t we talk about Fendi shoes more often? It seems like every time I see footwear from the brand, I love it, but it seems like stores don’t push Fendi’s shoes as much as they do some other brands. Why not? I’m not sure. But I do know that Fendi Fall 2012 is a solid, colorful collection of boots that I look forward to seeing on fashion people in six months.

So I have a slightly-after-new-years resolution: We’re going to talk about more Fendi footwear around here in the future. The brand is certainly worthy of the chatter, particularly when they’re making unique and interesting shoes like these.

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