White sneakers are finally the RAGE in Europe.
 

Isn't it fun that white sneakers are finally the RAGE in Europe?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/fa...ml?ref=fashion

Having just returned from Venice and Milan, I was struck by the amount of white I saw near the ground. Perhaps that awful taxi strike forced more sneaker-wearing people onto the streets. Is it possible American tourists (or a steady lack of them) have had their impact on European fashion trends?

Blinding canary yellow sneakers were popular in Venice's fashion windows and on the feet of younger Italians during the Architecture Biennale opening. Italians tend to love their yellow/black combinations, but yellow is a bit too Donatella for me.

Nike opened a large store just before you step onto the Ponte della Costituzione. A lot of taxi drivers in Venice are wearing white Nike sneakers these days. You can spot the Nike logo a mile away.

Does this mean criticizing the American tourist who loves his/her white sneakers is over?

The only people criticising Americans for their clothing and footwear are other Americans. Europeans couldn't care less what you wear when in Europe.

It only took reverse snobbery about 40 years to occur.

I've started packing fr our two weeks in Europe. Amongst other things I am taking are 3/4 shorts and a couple pair of Pumas. If I don't return it means I got run over by some clothing-insecure tourist from the US I suppose.

Damn, I bought a pair of black sneakers specifically for walking around London in April, Spain in May and now France in July. I bought them so I'd only tick 5 of the 10 'annoying American tourist' boxes instead of 6.

I'm always out of fashion!

What puzzles me is how they keep them white. When I were a lad, we put liquid called Blanko on our white gym shoes and left them on the windowsill to dry .

Dukey, lol.

I will point out that there was a time when a *specific kind* of white sneaker was out of fashion among the cognoscenti but still popular with middle-of-the-road Americans (perhaps others, too, I don't know). Hence, the stigma.

I don't think the white Superga--a kind of canvas sneaker, similar to Tretorn or Jack Purcell--ever really went all the way out, nor did the big white sneakers, like Air Jordans, that some rappers wear. Unless you're not a rapper.

Which brings me to my point: when we are tourists, we look like tourists, and no amount of fashion advice will change that. We all do our best, but in the end, to quote Popeye, I yam what I yam.

I've got news for you as I have been travelling to Venice and Rome for years and I can't tell the American teenagers from their Italian, German, Dutch, French counterparts.

Top Shop, Zara, A/F, Hollister, Gap, Nike, Lacoste, are global brands.

French tourists walk around Rittenhouse Square wearing hoodies, Chicago Bulls hats, and I phones.

I have also noticed that the guys who work the supply boats in Venice like Nike trainers.

See you at a beccafico in Campo San
Stefano!

Thin

"Isn't it fun that white sneakers are finally the RAGE in Europe?"

Finally? My son has been wearing white sneakers since he was a teenager - and he is 32.

I wonder: is there a French language equivalent of this board somewhere, on which French tourists bound for the US inquire anxiously about footwear? Do German tourists headed for New York ask whether shorts would be appropriate?

Is fashion anxiety universal among travelers?

Of course there is always the differences in hair styles, belts, watches, eye glasses, bags, shirts, sweaters, and pants that are not jeans.

This is no news; someone has just noticed.

My Italian husband has been wearing white trainers for over 15 years. Before we were married, when he came to visit me in the US once, one of his friends asked him to pick up a specific brand of white running shoes.

I've never liked white shoes, specifically because they get soiled so easily, but for several years, dark colored athletic shoes were impossible to find here in Italy. This year, I finally found a pair of black trainers.

Where I live, teenaged girls are all wearing brightly colored hi-tops, the old-fashioned basketball shoe (with no high-tech features).

Since white sneakers have been popular for decades in Europe, it is more likely that some of the American fashion writers have finally wiped the sh*t out of their eyes.

When I learned that just across the border in Mexico the locals call the tourists "Q-Tips" for our white hair and shoes, I resolved to wear only black trainers.

<it is more likely that some of the American fashion writers have finally wiped the sh*t out of their eyes.>
So when will assuming that all Americans are stupid and inferior to Europeans go out of style? Ironically, this is exactly the attitude that provokes anxiety in insecure Americans traveling abroad.

Are American fashion writers the majority in the country? Wow, that really would make the country inferior. But hey, if you think that American fashion writers for the NYT are the kings of the world, more power to you, and be sure to dress exactly how they say you should!

Frankly, I think that normal American people have more sense about how to dress, but you are free to disagree.

<Are American fashion writers the majority in the country? >
Huh??
<if you think that American fashion writers for the NYT are the kings of the world>
Where did I say that?

What a silly rude person!

Would this be considered Normcore?

Wrong!

I talk to people about travel to Europe and Asia all the time.

The vast majority of people who are insecure about travelling abroad feel so because they don't speak a foreign language and they are confused about
currency.

I have never had anyone tell me they were nervous about travelling to Istanbul because they didn't know what shoes to wear.


Thin

NYC-FS, what was your impression of the Arch Biennale? Did you find it stimulating, or maybe a bit opaque.

I liked a couple of exhibitions running in parallel with the Biennale, art works at the Olivetti, works by contemporaries of Carlo Scarpa, and also an exhibition at the Querini Stampalia, sketches and construction drawing by Scarpa. Those drawings allow you to get inside his head a bit.

I found the German pavilion completely un-understandable. France was good, quite self-critical, the history of the concentration camp just outside Paris. Full scale construction of one of Le Corb's designs was good.

I love the comment

<i>hetismij2 on Jun 26, 14 at 5:08pm
The only people criticising Americans for their clothing and footwear are other Americans. Europeans couldn't care less what you wear when in Europe.</i>

Here are some links to sports shoe shops in Spain.
http://www.zalando.es/zapatillas-sneakers-hombre/
http://www.decathlon.es/C-1018191-za...deporte-hombre
Just to prove the point ;-)

I'm currently in Poland and have even seen some of those bright colored sneakers. Personally, I don't care what anyone wears in Europe.

These periodic "what to wear" threads are always hilarious and full of Americans who regard themselves as fashionistas.

Your shoes/clothes are your own business and there are no Fashion Police in Europe to summarily eject you from places for improper clothing. Everyone knows you bring a limited wardrobe when you travel unless you want to break your back as part of the trip.

PS I am going to Istanbul on this trip and I never thought to worry about what shoes to wear there. :-)

Don't wear heels when walking Hadrian's wall seems the most critical thing in the last few weeks

<I>What a silly rude person!</i>

Yes, you are NewbE. I criticized the fashion writers for the NYT and you turned it into a tirade against all Americans.

<i>So when will assuming that all Americans are stupid and inferior to Europeans go out of style? Ironically, this is exactly the attitude that provokes anxiety in insecure Americans traveling abroad.</i>

I even wrote that normal Americans know perfectly well how to dress, but this seems to have gone over your head.

<i>What puzzles me is how they keep them white. </i>

Daily light cleaning after wearing.

Great. So fannypacks are fine. I was starting to feel a bit anal wearing mine.

<i>So fannypacks are fine.</i>

You wear whatever you want. I'll still chuckle when I see you.

I think that the point of the article a few fashion houses are showing them in their spring collections. There was a mini-crisis a few months ago when the newly-in-style Adidas Rod Laver's were sold out everywhere. (I just wore a pair to dinner at a new NYC restaurant and they looked kind of cute)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/fa...ker-Niche.html

Another stellar thread on fodors really designed to help travelers.

THIS IS SARCASTIC!

"Fanny" means something different in British English. I PMPL when I read that.

There a lot of these types of threads on Trip Advisor too. When will vacationers relax and go with the flow.? I have just read that shorts are only for children not for adults.

Since most American tourists are Caucasian many foreigners confuse sandals with white sneakers.

Since I live in downtown NYC, I wear black sneakers to funerals and Europe.

I prefer a two-tone--black AND white--sneaker. Covers all the bases. And at least half of the sneaker will look clean after I get doused with that sooty puddle water from the taxi hurtling past. But I am never sure about sock color (?????)

Wear yellow socks for that bumble-bee look.

Ok, I'll bite. Not necessarily white, but where to find/ which sneakers are both comfortable and don't scream "runner"? I've seen the bright blue or orange or whatever sneakers but didn't pay close enough attention to who made them.

P&S are the Superga and the Rod Lavers comfortable / pads or are they flat flat flat like Chuck Taylors? I had to get gel inserts for my Chucks.

Fly girl, I find my supergas a zillion times more comfortable than my chucks. They have a lot more support and a thicker sole so you don't feel every pebble.

Just an aside here. When I first went to Europe in 1965, I found it easy to tell Americans from Europeans, but I can't do that any more. Clothing styles seem to have become more global.

flygirl, I agree with you about Chucks. For more support and a slightly wider toebox, try Converse Jack Purcells. They look similar to Chucks, and do come in white, as well as other colors and patterns.

FWIW, neon bright running shoes are in this summer, so if those work for your feet, I'd say go for it.

As for socks, I see young persons wearing those super low profile socks, the ones that barely come up to the ankle, in either black or white depending on the shoe, even with Chucks.

Peg, that's a really interesting observation!