What's Hot - Sunday Independent (Johannesburg,South Africa)
"Fashion victims are a courageous if not foolish bunch; no matter how ludicrous the fad they are happy to wear it with pride. So when I first saw a fashion fundi swanning around in a pair of Crocs I couldn't help but snigger. Who in their right mind would willingly wear a clumsy-looking pair of plastic clogs?
Any fashionista worth their salt, it turned out.
Everywhere you go you see some trendoid sauntering about town in a pair of these shoes. While they sort of recall the "jelly" shoes that enjoyed limited success in the late eighties, this American brand of shoes is less pleasing to the eye and are guaranteed to do nothing for your legs. So what makes Crocs so hot?
Once you have slipped into a pair of Crocs it will become obvious, so say Crocs devotees. For these shoes are said to put the sort of comfort associated with Hush Puppies in the shade. Who would have thought that one could look fashionable and feel comfortable at the same time? It has to be a first.
Apparently Crocs were originally designed for boating enthusiasts in search of footwear that wouldn't mark the pristine white surfaces of their boats or yachts and that would prevent them from slipping on wet surfaces. Made from resin, the shoes are flexible, making them easy to wear, and the large ventilation holes dotted around the shoe allow the foot to breathe, so on a hot day your feet won't sweat or stink to high heaven.
One fan of Crocs admitted to me that she had gone hiking wearing her Crocs.
"You can scale mountains, charge through rivers or walk across slippery rocks in your Crocs," she gushed.
These shoes are not for the fainthearted; they come in the boldest shades of red, orange, green and yellow.
Men tend to be left out of most fashionable trends, not so with the Crocs phenomenon. Crocs aren't just for the fairer sex, they are unisex shoes that go up to a size 12 (XXL) for men.
It all sounds too good to be true, so what's the catch? You have to fork out nearly R400 to acquire a pair of shoes that will probably clash with everything in your wardrobe. However, Crocs aficionados swear that once you put them on, it will feel worth every cent."
Read the entire article, What's Hot written by Mary Corrigall for Sunday Independent (Johannesburg,South Africa) at (http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=1099&fArticleId=3075249).