Best Shoes 2018
Five pairs, one theme — versatility: two chukkas, a Chelsea bootie, an espadrille platform and one jeweled sneaker
Do you love shoes? Are you interested in looking at any sort of shoe, or just the 'best shoes'? Yup — us too. Here are a few that we think stand out this year: four hard-working pairs chosen because they go with everything, and one spectacular exception that goes with nothing else in your closet and doesn't care.
The pattern in the picks is versatility. A women's all-terrain chukka, an espadrille platform sandal that was a department-store exclusive, a deliberately plain Chelsea bootie praised precisely because it suits a wide variety of occasions, and a weekend chukka boot built for comfort — answered, for balance, by a crystal-covered luxury sneaker.
Cole Haan GrandExplore and the AQUA Rowan Espadrille
The Cole Haan Women's GrandExpløre All-Terrain Chukka opens the list: a chukka boot rebuilt with athletic-shoe cushioning and an all-terrain brief, so the pair that looks right with trousers and dresses also walks like a sneaker. It is the 2018 shoe market in one product — dress silhouettes borrowing sports technology, because comfort had stopped being optional.
The AQUA Women's Rowan Leather Espadrille Platform Sandals are the summer entry: a leather espadrille on a platform, the following espadrille platform sandal having been an exclusive at Bloomingdale's. Espadrilles are summer's oldest shoe; the platform is what makes this one 2018, lifting the jute-rope classic into the year's platform-sandal trend without surrendering its vacation ease.
FRYE Sabrina Chelsea: Plain, on Purpose
The FRYE Sabrina Chelsea bootie earns its place with a confession: OK, this bootie does not have many bells and whistles. Rather plain in appearance — but well suited for a wide variety of occasions. Versatility with footwear matters.
That is the most useful sentence on this page. A Chelsea bootie in plain leather is the shoe a wardrobe actually runs on from October to April: jeans, trousers, dresses, tights, travel. FRYE's contribution is construction — a bootmaker's last and leather that ages instead of wearing out — applied to the least fashionable, most worn silhouette of the decade. Best-of lists usually reward decoration; this pick rewards the opposite, deliberately.
Timberland FlyRoam Go: The Weekend Chukka
Timberland FlyRoam Go Strap Chukka Boots are boots built for weekends: the FlyRoam Go chukkas are the comfiest. A strap chukka on a light, sneaker-like sole, this is the second chukka on the list — the silhouette appears twice because 2018 kept asking shoes to do two jobs, and the chukka, ankle-high and lace-light, is the boot shape that answers most easily.
Set the two chukkas side by side and the year's footwear logic is complete: Cole Haan dresses the chukka up with cushioning for women who walk a city; Timberland dresses it down with a strap and a weekend sole. Same ancestor — a desert boot — two different Saturdays.
The Exception: Gucci's Jeweled Flashtrek Sneaker
And then there is the sneaker. We are not sure it is the absolute best women's sneaker of 2018, but it is certainly a very expensive pair of shoes: check out the Gucci Flashtrek Jewel Sneaker — a chunky trail sneaker wearing a removable harness of crystals, the 'this sneaker is a jewel' idea made literal.
Every versatility list needs its counterexample, and the Flashtrek is 2018's: maximalist, jeweled, deliberately impractical, and the year's most talked-about sneaker silhouette in luxury. Please be patient about a final verdict on the best shoes of 2018 — a list published mid-year is a progress report, and more was always coming soon.
Reading the List as a 2018 Footwear Map
Step back and the five picks divide the 2018 shoe closet almost perfectly. Two chukkas cover the ankle-boot ground — one cushioned for city walking, one strapped and lightened for weekends. The Chelsea bootie covers the dressed-up weekday, the espadrille platform covers summer, and the jeweled sneaker covers the party none of the others can attend. A shopper who owned only these five pairs would be correctly shod for nearly everything the year asked of her.
That coverage, more than any single pair, is the list's argument about 2018: footwear had sorted itself into hybrids. Dress shoes borrowed sneaker soles, boots borrowed sneaker weight, sandals borrowed platform height, and the sneaker itself borrowed jewelry. The pure categories — the stiletto, the running shoe, the work boot — still existed, but the interesting shoes of the year all lived on a border between two of them. Thank you for using the Apparel Search website.
Common Questions
Why does the 2018 shoe list praise a plain bootie?
Because versatility matters. The FRYE Sabrina Chelsea bootie has few bells and whistles and a rather plain appearance, but it suits a wide variety of occasions — the quality a wardrobe actually uses from October to April.
Which 2018 pick was a department-store exclusive?
The AQUA Women's Rowan Leather Espadrille Platform Sandals, an exclusive at Bloomingdale's — a leather espadrille lifted onto a platform, summer's oldest shoe in the year's platform-sandal form.
What is unusual about the Gucci Flashtrek Jewel Sneaker?
It is a chunky trail sneaker decorated as jewelry, with crystals worn over the shoe — certainly a very expensive pair of shoes, included as the list's spectacular exception to its versatility theme.
Photos
