Bollywood’s shoe porn: Pumps, boots or sneakers — what’s B-Town’s ‘it’ footwear of the season?

Recently Sara Ali Khan teamed her Masaba top and black skinny jeans with a pair of gold and black heels striking that delicate balance between designer wear and high street. On the other hand, Janhvi Kapoor finished off her Topshop tartan separates with a pair of blush pink pumps, while Alia Bhatt offset her blue Prabal Gurung dress with a pair of Gucci sandals. This party season, it’s a footwear tussle between strappy heels, statement sneakers and quirky pumps with actresses always throwing a pleasant surprise with their footwear picks. 

Last week, Shilpa Shetty Kundra sported a pair of heartbreaker heels bringing to mind Blake Lively’s Christian Louboutin shoes, which she picked for Valentine’s eve. Bollywood and Hollywood aside, on Instagram, style influencer Chiara Ferragni’s heart-kissed sneakers collection has become a rage. The stylista teamed her sneakers with a Giambattista Valli haute couture dress at an event. From time to time, there emerges a shoe of the season, but nothing beats the allure of the uber-comfy Saint Laurent and the classic Manolos. We get experts to share their picks for the party season. 

SPARKLE BOOTS

Disco fever has been the key runway story and the shine-on effect has been seen on the footwear across the world. Designer and shoe addict Surily Goel vouches for Chanel sparkle boots, hailing it as the shoe of the season. “You can’t beat the Chanel glitter boots and Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello has the most comfy heels,” says Surily.

(Clockwise from top left) Chanel short boots, Mules by Sies Marjan, Balenciaga sock booties, Chiara Ferragni sneakers and Saint Laurent pumps; Saint Laurent; Aquazarra pumps; Sophia Webster

BRING BACK THE MANOLOS

A slew of sneakers collaborations have seen the trainer game spiralling out of control with brands bringing out off-kilter designs. Be it YCMC x New Balance or Kith x Nike LeBron or Atmos x Nike Air Max 1 or Travis Scott x Air Jordan IV, while the sneaker-heads among us couldn’t be more thrilled, there are those itching to embrace the age-old elegant footwear like designer Arpita Mehta. “It’s time to bring back the age-less Manolos Blahniks,” says she. 

PUT YOUR DANCING SHOES ON 

With more and more wedding functions happening in the sand dunes of Rajasthan, the focus is towards comfort over anything else. Stylist Divyak D’Souza says, “Invest in shoes which let you dance all night. Among the coolest footwear I’ve seen of late, Balenciaga’s ankle boots in acid tones stand out.”