The idea of capsule collections and wardrobe staples is always at the forefront of our minds. The Who What Wear team is constantly calling into question how we shop and why we buy the things we do in order to reconcile our love of style with concerns over sustainability.
One of the main ways we have been doing this is by taking a serious look at the pieces that work the hardest in our wardrobes. While I am notorious for being a jacket hoarder, for some reason, I’ve never really caught the shoe bug (I’ll leave that to our Editor in Chief Hannah Almassi), and this has meant that my specifications have been primarily practical. I’ve always needed every pair to be all of the following: comfortable, low-maintenance, versatile and, of course, stylish.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, this isn’t always an easy criterion to fulfil, but over the years, I’ve whittled my edit down to a handful of winning pairs that I turn to day in and day out for every occasion. So forget transient trends and fashion fads—here are my five failsafe shoe styles that have passed the test and made it onto my must-have lineup.