Chloe ushers in the return of the heel at Paris Fashion Week

September 30, 2016

Author: Irene Oster

Those women who have got comfortable with the fashion industry's recent embrace of the flat shoe may need to put on a blister plaster before they read on: the high heel is back.

So declared Claire Waight-Keller, the British creative director of Chloe after the French house's SS17 show in Paris this morning.

"The heel hasn't felt right for a while," said Waight-Keller, confirming what so many women have always thought... "but it does feel right now." She said she had designed the high-waisted trousers that she included in the collection to taper in at the ankle enabling the new 8cm heeled sandal from the collection to be fully appreciated: "Because" she emphasised, "The [high] heel is so important."

Having been inspired by real women for the previous two Chloe collections- Kate Moss for SS16 and Anne-France Dautheville, a motor biking French adventuress, for the current Autumn season, this time Waight-Keller simply wanted Chloe "to feel French again".

And so to the sound of what is known by music geeks as a 'rock-yacht' soundtrack - a crisp white bustier fit for the Riviera and navy balloon cut trousers opened the show. A roomy oversized sweat with rugby shirt cuffs and shorts followed.

Tops and dresses with sailor shirt collars, a series of navy and white narrow striped pieces and roping details continued the nautical theme. Tailoring was minimalist in black and white - light-weight trouser suits that felt easy for summer.

The Chloe flou - the floaty long or baby doll dresses traditional to the house - was harnessed this season by nautical roping that resembled the hipster lighting cable you can buy by the metre at Heal's. Other furnishing references came in the form of retro wallpaper blooms in dusty shades of brown and blue, which Waight-Keller wanted to feel innocent, a reminder to some women of bedrooms they recognised from children.

The audience at a Chloe show is unusual and slightly unnerving in that so much of it is women wearing the brand head-to-toe in a way that might not be cool at other fashion shows. But Chloe under Waight-Keller is always cool and those loyal fans will be putting in orders for next season's new dinky half-moon bracelet bag that was more bracelet than bag. And if Chloe is insisting that the high heel is back, they'll be tottering off in those too.