Semi-smart sneakers

Appearing in one of autumn-winter’s most interesting advertisements is an unlikely star: the high fashion running shoe. Shot by Willy Vanderperre and styled by Olivier Rizzo, model Luca Lemaire dons multi-hued tech trainers — co-produced with Adidas — with baggy suits for Raf Simons.

Elsewhere, floating down the runways of Paris, are lively sports shoes by Lanvin, which opened the show paired with narrow trousers and a long double-breasted coat. Versions of the street-ready footwear, teamed with tailored jackets and backpacks, figure in Steven Meisel’s “A Self Portrait” campaign for the French house. 

During the previous fashion week cycle, Massimiliano Giornetti’s trainers at Salvatore Ferragamo played with shades from the works of David Hockney.  Valentino, meanwhile, scored a massive hit with their camouflage suede sneakers, a brainchild of menswear creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli. The Italian label unveiled the Rockrunner fluo limited edition collection at this year’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Milan’s annual furniture fair.

Form over function

Patently form-over-function, these are not studded hi-tops or minimal plimsolls. Neither do they come cheap. Valentino’s offering, for instance, may come at a cool £440, but Adam Welch of London’s The Independent notes that men’s designer sneakers “have been selling out once they hit the shops, despite the ostentatious stylings and incredibly high price points.”

The comforting thing with men’s fashion is that unlike its feminine counterpart, key pieces and specific looks come not as seismic shifts but as tiny increments. These changes, most often subtle, spell the difference between new and old ways of putting it all together.

After years of preppy and heritage looks, the brogues, wingtips and penny loafers recommended by most contemporary men’s dressing guides have begun to look painfully unimaginative. As Welch proposes, “the emergence of the running shoe as a high-end fashion piece proposes an element of couldn’t-care-less-ness to menswear that flies in the face of the dandyism that’s been following it around for the past decade.” 

Mental archives

But not everyone is on board. As Canadian street-style snapper Tommy Ton told The Guardian: “I don’t like garish sneakers. When your shoes outshine your entire outfit, that’s the worst.”

Admittedly I am a huge fan of the look. My consciousness began to take shape during the late ’90s to the early 2000s, and some of the most enduring and alluring images in my mental archives are from that golden era. I always seem to go back to photos of film director Wes Anderson, captured by Terry Richardson for Arena Homme Plus Spring Summer 2003, wearing suits by New York custom tailor Mr. Ned and his own beat-up New Balance trainers.

Teenage tribute

Then there’s the video for the 1997 track A Life Less Ordinary in which members of the Northern Irish band Ash play their guitars atop moving race cars. It was my first time to see colorful, athletic footwear — the kind that reside in the recesses of your wardrobe where no one can smell them – coupled with somber, dressier basics such as black pants. As my teenage tribute to vocalist Tim Wheeler, I purchased the Nike Air Max 97 Silver Bullet, now deemed a classic, to wear to school with Costume National chinos after spotting it in Tyler Brûlé’s Wallpaper. 

“The smart suit with trainers turned up as a key look on the men’s runways for summer at the shows of sartorial heavyweights Hermès, Bottega Veneta, Salvatore Ferragamo and Valentino; and it cropped up again for autumn at Lanvin, Trussardi and Marc by Marc Jacobs,” reiterates the Financial Times’ David Hayes. So should we all follow?

I’m glad that high fashion has once again fused with the vernacular of sportswear as it’s a look that I have spent more than a decade perfecting. While I have yet to buy into the designer runner trend, I have armed myself with geeky, technical pairs by Saucony and Asics. Juxtaposed with avant-grade designer gear, it’s a fantastic anti-fashion statement: “I care — but not really”.

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