Sandal fever

Memo to myself: Get a nice pedicure. Now! If this season’s shoe takes have anything to show, it’s those pretty little toes. Sandals are once again must-wears as temperatures sizzle to feverish highs.

This year, summer’s love affair with sandals is a medley of sweet, sexy, and sassy. Spring-summer’s runway bout with flora and sherbet shades have been translated to toe peepers. Those corsages that used to titivate Carrie Bradshaw’s lapel now adorn thongs and slides. They may not be as overwhelming in size, but they still attract as much attention. To cheer up the season’s picks, sandal flora is as colorful as the real thing. Sandals are now brazen enough to come in bright, no-to-neutral colors such as flame orange, fuchsia, mustard, violet, canary yellow, and turquoise.

The color cascade continues as sherbet shades cool off this summer’s palette. Last year’s obsession with ‘80s fluorescence has toned down a bit. Muted neon ushers in yummy sherbet colors such as apple green, bubblegum pink, aqua, and lemon yellow. The style seen prancing around in popsicle colors is the "jelly" sandal, a clear plastic version of the usual leather option. Introduced in the 1970s for adults – with miniature version for their stylish brood – jellies made a brief comeback in the early ‘90s (I wore mine with a pair of eagle-brandished Armani baston jeans) before once again setting foot in the present day limelight. Spotted as slides with kitten heels or in strappier versions, jellies are the best night-to-day beach companions.

If the hankering for more neutral tones persists, opt for white. White is the universal summer color, an instant refresher to one’s wardrobe, and a summer certainty in the sundry splash of rainbow colors. White doesn’t wear down the ankles into corporate severity that black and brown sandals afford, nor do you risk giving off the sex kitten vibes that red can give off. Plus, white saves you from having to constantly change the color of your toenails.

As Yves St. Laurent and Miu Miu have shown, summer footwear gets its peak from a different high. The stiletto sashays off to make way for the platform heel, a recurrent comeback since its hippie heyday in the ‘70s. These hot summer days, the platform elevates with straw, cork, and wood. Beaded, studded, or painted, the platform is a definite summer essential.

Sandal closure these days has taken on a more creative streak. Ribbons and laces give a wholesome image to the "tie-me-up" axiom and prettifies ankles more than the usual metal hinge. Wind them up your calves in a criss-cross pattern in Roman sandal fashion or just coil the laces around your ankles to anchor a pretty bow.