Laura Bailey lights up LK Bennett with a parade of colourful shoe designs

Forget prim kitten heels and bland court shoes, Laura Bailey brings a shot of colour to LK Bennett this spring, says Rebecca Gonsalves

Laura Bailey models her new shoe designs

LK Bennett has a reputation as being particularly prim. Maybe that’s due to a certain Duchess being regularly shod in its court shoes, or perhaps its Nineties heyday as a purveyor of kitten heels is to blame. Regardless of the guilty party, a great deal of time, effort and money has gone into rebuilding a reputation that’s a lot more colourful than Ms Middleton’s footwear.

In past seasons, collaboration with Caroline Issa – Tank magazine editor and street style favourite – has seen the brand up the fashionable ante with pom-poms and colourful embroidery, while actress Rosamund Pike designed a capsule collection when she was the face of the brand in 2013. Now the mantle has been passed to Laura Bailey, a fashion polymath if ever there was one. Alongside her responsibilities as Chanel ambassador, creative director of jewellery brand Loquet London and contributing editor to British Vogue, Bailey has designed a graphic range of shoes and bags inspired by Italy’s Amalfi coast. There is something of the Sixties in modish flats, enhanced by crossover straps; the perfect foil for summery dresses, wide cropped trousers or boyfriend jeans, these are the most eminently wearable items in a cheeringly colourful collection.

lkbennett.com