White, White Sneakers — On the Cobbled Streets of Lisbon’s Baixa District

By Barbara Falconer Newhall

Is it time to finally ditch those flashy, multi-colored cross trainers for ho-hum white sneakers? Are the footwear fashionistas of the world giving up gaudy for demure for good?

During a trip to Portugal last month I noticed that the feet of the smart young continentals shopping the cobblestoned streets of Lisbon’s Baixa district were still stepping out in white, white, white.

Back in the 1950s, when white Keds were de rigueur in the halls of

Birmingham (Michigan) High School, teens in the know got their friends to stomp on their shoes and dirty    them up a bit. Brand new white shoes were nerdy in the ’50s, when nerdy was actually nerdy.

By the looks of it, however, 21st-century Europeans like their whites

white. And at least one Baixa shop was making that fresh-off-the-shelf look affordable with tennies at 18 euros (about $21) a pair.

As for me, I’m not ready to give up my glitzy work-out shoes. Who wants plain old white when you can have maroon, pink and chartreuse all on a single pair of shoes?

Shoe fashions from elsewhere on the globe at “Shanghai Chic: Where a Woman’s Style Starts With Her Shoes.” Also, “My Killer Shoes — Brought Down to Earth by Those Four-and-a-Half-Inch Heels.”