Local shoppers walk away from slippers with sparkle

By Adrienne Ancheta
Advertiser Staff Writer

The slippers at top left are made by Volatile and the style is called Venice Stars. The pair on the bottom are made by Yellow Box and the style is called Navy Glitter Den. The slippers on the right are made by Yellow Box and the style is called Angel. All can be found at Nicole in the Kahala Mall. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

Slippers with straps decorated in rhinestones, star-shaped studs (a la 1980s fashion craze Bedazzler), glitter and sequins follow the current pop trend of glitter and shine everywhere and carry price tags ranging from $10 to $45. Though the slippers are making a subtle showing in Hawai'i stores and on local feet, they are still miles away from reaching the same Mainland craze status.

At the August World Shoe Association Convention in Las Vegas, the largest footwear exposition in the nation, just about every vendor had a fanciful flip-flop, according to the buyer for Hawai'i shoe stores Nicole and Robins, Georgia Nagasawa. Popular national brands Roxy, Steve Madden, Flo Jos and Nine West and stores like Gap and Old Navy all are marketing some type of sparkling slipper.

Schools in Texas have even gone so far as to ban slippers out of concern that students are taking the pop trend too far.

"It's huge on the Mainland but that doesn't necessarily mean it's big business for us," Nagasawa said.

Nicole and Robins carry posh slippers but haven't seen sales pick up since debuting the style in spring of last year. Nagasawa stocks the store with the slippers just to show the trend, but the amounts she buys are limited, and she says customers still favor basic colors like black.

The sparkling slippers are "too much for the local person," Nagasawa said. "They tend to buy more simple-looking things."

Any bright or sparkling items they do buy usually are on the more conservative side, she said. "They may be attracted to the oranges and turquoise but think, 'If I get the black I can wear it with anything,'" she added.

Tourists are more likely to buy the sparkling slippers than are the local people, who are more attracted to cork-bottom sandals, Nagasawa said.

The same is true at T&C, where there is a small selection of sequined slippers. Saleswoman Crystal Morris has seen mostly Japanese tourists or girls in their pre-teens buying them.

"Girls (here) usually go for the more classic reefs that match everything," Morris said.

Sequined slippers at T&C are most popular with girls 11 and 12 years old, possibly because "they try to act all Destiny's Child looking," she said.

Castle High School student Amber Kim, 13, agrees that glittery slippers are nice to look at but can't be matched with just anything. Kim said she has not seen many Castle students wearing sparkling slippers.

"Everybody goes regular, not really fancy (at school)," she said. Slipper trends at Castle are more in the way of platforms than glitter, she added.

Besides not being very popular at Castle, glittery slippers have another downside. "People don't wear them a lot because the glitter and stuff are going to start falling off," Kim said.

But as with many trends that begin on the Mainland, Hawai'i may just be lagging behind. One fall trend is denim-looking slippers with star studs, an extremely popular style on the Mainland where star tattoos are also big, Nagasawa said. While local shoppers are more likely to buy the plain denim-looking slippers than the studded ones, they are the biggest sellers on the Mainland, she said.

The trend may not be too long in coming here. Kim already owns a pair of star-studded denim slippers with high platforms, although she wears it sparingly depending on whether she's wearing long pants (so people can't tell she's wearing platforms) and usually when she's not around her friends, who she towers over in the slippers.

At Farrington High School, glitter and sequins on slippers became the stylish choice this year, said senior Deniece Gantala, 17. Gantala owns one pair of glittery slippers and another with sequins.

"Everybody's wearing that kind," she said. "I hope (the trend) goes on, 'cause it's cool."