Footwear brands at Capsule New York (Sept. 17-19) attributed the success of canvas for shoes for women to the fabric’s versatility: it’s simultaneously sturdy and playful, it’s comfortable but still cool and, on top of everything else, it’s a relatively inexpensive option.
The most popular style for canvas shoes was the flat espadrille. Crosswalk showed a Mary Jane-style in bold colorways with canvas produced and dyed in Spain, while Lisa B. offered a slip-on espadrille with a piqué-weave canvas. Colors dominated the collection with a sophisticated palette including magenta, burnt orange, dove gray and bright yellow.
Re-Sole showed a sneaker espadrille, but with a new material story for the shoe. The brand constructs their uppers from recycled polyethylene, the most widely used plastic in the world. In addition, the sole is made from recycled rubber, and the upper is printed with eco-friendly water inks. The espadrilles feature uppers with a newsprint pattern and wide laces. Other sneakers in the collection have playful prints like flamingos, polka dots and cartoon strips.
Brands that got their start with canvas slip-ons stuck to the popular style, making small updates. Rivieras offered new colorways and two-tone styles in their canvas mesh slip-on staple. A brand representative commented that the shoes fit in well with the current popularity of athleisure and street style apparel.
While Bucketfeet is also experimenting with some new fabrications, including chambray and leather, a centerpiece of their spring collection is a capsule collection with Piece & Co., featuring Bucketfeet’s classic canvas slip-ons. Piece & Co. works with women in developing countries who create textiles, and the Bucketfeet collaboration uses block-printed designs from an Indian cooperative and fabric woven with foot-looms by artisans in Guatemala. The textile designs range from an intricate floral to an Ikat dye.