Chances are that anyone who was wearing New Balance trainers this time last year is now sporting a pair of glorified aquasocks, which look like space age plimsolls, or they are trotting around in runner mules, which are essentially backless trainers. They're everywhere - little nylon flatsies which have evolved out of the shoes specially designed for windsurfing/diving and running. This is active, lifestyle footwear for everyday, and even office use. It says "I'm run off my feet but I care about fashion".
According to designer Lucy Downes of Sphere I, who was a footwear designer with DKNY for four years before returning to Dublin last year, the genesis of the look was in New York, where media and fashion types sought to turn on its head the Working Girl tradition of secretaries wearing bright white Reeboks for their commute and then changing into their pumps at the office. In New York and now Paris, fast-track women wear the style with panache, coupling the shoes with slick man-tailored suits. The Irish take is tamer, according to Kate Gaffney of Diffusion in Clontarf, who stocks a version by Marithe & Francois Girbaud £165. In Dublin, they're more of a weekend accessory and more attractive to younger women than the office-bound (PR girls being the exception to the rule).
The main attraction of the genre is comfort. After years of tottering around on platforms, cool chicks have come down to Earth and are relishing the fact that they can leap about the dance floor or from meeting to meeting without becoming a public liability. As the look filters down to the High Street, many a mother has expressed her delight about what can hardly be termed a fall from grace. For a few months at least there should be fewer twisted ankles seen in casualty.
Ideally, the aqua socks should be worn by women whose ankles don't demand anything of the shoes' elastic content. The wearer's feet should be healthily brown, not swathed in black deniers. If warmth is a consideration, you might just get away with a pair of jaunty 1970s style tennis socks with the trainer mules, provided your legs go all the way up to your armpits. Irish wearers can take comfort in the fact that when they get soaked in a puddle, the aquasock versions like French Connection's stretchy Aqua Scubas £75 in chalk and black are toastier than you would think thanks to their wet suit properties. They may not smell so good after a night on the rad, or razz, though.
The idea that you can walk to work and run around all day in style has been a long time coming, but sadly, this is one trend that doesn't flatter the average build. On most people, these shoes accentuate and visually shorten the calf, which might be a good look on the hockey pitch, but has little sex appeal off it. I tried the new Clarks "Solder" ATL mule (available from mid-November, £55) which made my feet look like cargo ships and the rest of me like a very, very squat piece of mutton. Yes, they were comfortable but everyone who ran into me looked involuntarily first at them, then at me - deeply, meaningfully as though they really needed to figure out how old I was and how old I thought I was. Those that knew me commented on how short I seemed. No one, but no one said, "cool shoes."
Perhaps that's because I tried silver mules with purple lettering - over 30s are advised not to wear anything but black and may prefer to go for one of the less pure-bred versions with a heel. The Bally aquasock (=A3105) captures the spirit of the beast but incorporates a bit of face-saving lift and comes in boot form, too for £140 (if you have hefty calves, spare yourself the humiliation of trying to coax one of these babies on in the middle of Brown Thomas). Best of all the models is Bertie's £39.95; it's good value, sturdy and relatively flattering.
Just bear in mind that these shoes are so "now" that they're unlikely to be wearable next season, so keeping costs down mightn't be a bad idea. As the editor of Image magazine, Sarah McDonnell, predicts, "the fad won't last. The style is too unglamorous and older people just won't get them. Or worse, they will get them and pad around in them like slippers."