the case for flats; Don't take the high road this spring.

Byline: Sarah Mower

Walking down Fifth Avenue last July, I had a premonition. As I stomped hotly officeward in my box-fresh Jil Sander four-inch platform sandals (which I adore but which were raising blisters within four blocks), a voice spoke in my head: "Next season, we are going to have flats," it announced. "Everything is about to change." I stopped in my tracks outside Gucci. All around, Manhattanites were swishing past, looking lovely in their plain little summery cotton tops, full patterned skirts, and . . . it was true! . . . flat sandals, slides, and prettified flip-flops. And in a flash, I saw. The shoes on the street that day had nothing to do with the 87-degree heat. This was a cultural fashion shift in action.

Think about it. Last summer, last winter-and every possible moment you can count back to the year 1994-New Yorkers have been physically and mentally grafted to their high heels, discomfort and weather irrespective. But something was changing, right here. This was the very week in which Carrie Bradshaw was hanging up her Manolos for the last time. Tom Ford, the man whose sexed-up stilettos had skewered the zeitgeist of the last decade so perfectly, had just left Gucci. From high heels to low-it was the tipping point. Even before flats made their runway entrance for spring, the women of New York were voting with their feet.

No need to panic. Plenty of high, high platforms and chunky four-inch heels are coming this way for spring, too. But the shoes that will make the biggest difference in the way we dress next summer are the following: adapted ballet slippers, gladiators, and two-strap walking sandals; elegant thongs and decorative slides; re-booted classic loafers, driving shoes, Mary Janes, and sixties skimmers; oh, and let's not forget flat summer Glastonbury boots. More or less every important designer has got into it in some way.

Miuccia Prada, come to think of it, had forewarned me this was going to happen. "Pointy high heels are finished. We've done the round toes and the chunky heel," she told me last summer. "There's nothing new to be done. So now's really the time to work on flats!" True to her word, she's designed crocodile loafers and bright red and yellow versions of the plain German walking sandals that are perennial loves of hers (and mine, for their simplicity). Also quick on the draw with a sporty German walking sandal is Jil Sander, who has treated it to a shiny plastic technolook in bottle-green (I so want these). In New York, Tara Subkoff at Imitation of Christ was first to alert the world to the Grecian wave that was to break over the collections with her strappy Greek sandals for Easy Spirit. Meanwhile, Alber Elbaz at Lanvin and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons sent ballet shoes into the spotlight, and lo and behold there were even laced-up-the-ankle ballet slippers in the athletic-based Y-3 collection designed by Yohji Yamamoto for Adidas. (Which reminded me how very long it's been since fashion has given us something flat to wear that isn't a pair of sneakers.)

It's obvious-just from watching the bellwether women of Manhattan-that flats are ready for a big welcome. For a start, they feel fresh. As Jil Sander says, "Once in a while, it can't be wrong to feel solid ground under your feet." She used her summer sandals to contrast with the feminine mood of her collection and "evoke an exciting tension." Tension is a good way to describe it, because although this summer's flats stand in obvious opposition to the last ten years' heels, they're not kicking anything in any aggressive way. Look at how flat sandals also take a symbolic, breezy step away from red-carpet stiletto cliche. Karl Lagerfeld was clever enough to acknowledge that gentle but important ...