Pointy-toe footwear was at the forefront of fashion for decades, until it completely disappeared in the ‘90s. It slowly made a comeback in the early ‘00s, gained its long lost momentum, and is once again completely mainstream.
Pointy-toed footwear comes in a range of point shapes. From gentle almond toes and classic pointy toes, to toe boxes that are extremely long and pointy resembling witches shoes. Pointy-toe shoes and boots have their good and bad qualities.
Advantages
- Elegant, pretty, polished and dressy.
- They create Modern Retro Charm.
- Dramatic pointy toes add theatrical drama to an outfit.
- They lengthen the leg line, which is especially effective when you wear low-vamp flats.
- A great fit on narrow, low-volume feet.
- Pointy toes look amazing peeking out from under long-length boot cuts, bell-bottoms and wide-leg pants.
- They visually lengthen a short foot to create balanced proportions. This is visually effective when you are tall, and have relatively small feet for your height.
Disadvantages
- Uncomfortable fit on wide feet with short toes because toes are squashed into a too small space that is contrary to the shape of the foot.
- They might cause long term foot pain and challenges when they are an unnatural fit for your foot.
- In some settings they can be too elegant, pretty, polished or dressy.
- Too much of a witchy vibe.
- They make your feet look too long. This has been the case with some of my petite clients who have relatively large feet.
I LOVE the look of pointy-toe footwear because of my ‘80s and Modern Retro gene. I like gentle almond toes and classic points, but witchy pointy toes are not my thing. I can tick off the rest of their advantages in the above list too. I adore their dressy elegance and how they lengthen the leg line in flats. Most importantly, I have a small, narrow, low-volume, pointy foot which makes pointy-toed footwear an easy, natural fit. My long toes enjoy the length of the pointy toe box.
I don’t wear pointy toes exclusively because I like to mix it up, but most of my footwear has some sort of gentle or classic pointy toe box. Round-toe footwear is almost always too wide and short, unless I size up and get a narrow size. I’m very comfortable in pointy toes as long as they are flat or low-heeled.
Over to you. Do you wear and like pointy-toe footwear? Please add to my lists of pros and cons if you think they are incomplete.