Hidden Spring Trend Alert – Plastic, PVC, Rubber & Jellies!

It is unbelievable but every single pair of the shoes below are made entirely out of some sort of rubber or plastic!!!  Plastic shoes, sometimes called jellies, started a comeback last year with Marc Jacobs’s reissue of his beloved mouse flat in jelly-bean hues of PVC. This year this trend covered much in the mainstream media yet, but when old, well-established houses like Tods, Givenchy and Gucci dabble in moulded PVC for their Spring collections and so do designers prone to the avant-garde like Marc Jacobs and Vivienne Westwood and contemporary brands like , Melissa and See by Chloe… well, it could call that a full blown trend. The best part is that most of these styles are totally affordable not one shoe is over $200! But for their glossy charm and vibrant color, this pair from Kartell (yes, the furniture company) is this season’s best. In a bold move outside its category, Kartell got Italian designer Norma Luisa to create a small group of jellies called Glue Cinderella ($135 at Kartell <http://nymag.com/listings/stores/kartell/> , 39 Greene St., nr. Grand St.; 212-966-6665), which come in seven solids, three two-tone colorways, and clear. There are tiny vent holes in the arch, and the heel is star-shaped, so your footprint will be unmistakable.