20 stylish summer shoes to wear at work (and play)

When it’s time to dump the opaques and flaunt bare legs in summer, what are the best ways to rock the no sock look at work? Shoe trends this season are free ranging and make their own demands on our feet from slides and mules to sky high jewelled heels. Balenciaga put Crocs on the catwalk, Chanel brought out PVC boots, feathers flew at Saint Laurent, Gucci reissued the loafer while Céline stuck to points, a trend that was the most copied on the high street.

Sporting high heels sans hosiery means painful blisters are often the price to be pay. Feet have more sweat glands than any other part of the body and anyone who has spent a day walking around in leather footwear without a sock in sight will know about suffering and limping. If you’re vacuum packed into jeans and Nike flyknits at the weekend, what are the best shoes to wear with bare feet for the 9-5 job, the best artillery to fight sweat, sores and blisters and still look (and feel) cool?

Secret socks that absorb perspiration are one answer for closed leather shoes like loafers (Calzedonia do a good range) while talcum powder dusted on insoles of mules or slides keeps feet sweat free. Invest in a Scholl footspray and if liner socks show, sometimes trimming them can work. For open or peep toed footwear like slingbacks, a pedicure and polish is an absolute necessity and a short dress with nude hosiery makes high heeled pumps or stilettos easier to wear. Espadrilles, flat or high, no matter how comfortable, don’t suit wet summer streets and are best left to the seaside – wedges make legs look heavy anyway and sneakers don’t always suit serious business meetings.

Here’s our edit of some 20 shoe styles at various prices and heights – some more elaborate than others, some simple, others more colourful and playful. The plainer the dress, the more fearless and flamboyant you can be with shoes and vice versa, when stepping out in summer.