ByJan Shure, Jan Shure
If you thought the sheer range of trends in clothing this season was dazzling/baffling, you will find no comfort in footwear - literally, of course, as well as metaphorically, since mega high heels and teetering platforms again stalk the land for spring/summer 2012.
What is making life tougher for all our inner Carrie Bradshaws, is that so many of them are so alluring, we run the risk of buying more pairs than intended.
Colour is among the key options, with riotous mixes of sizzling brights such as fuchsia, cobalt, turquoise and orange, used singly or in deliciously clashing combinations. If you are wary of going the colour block route in clothes, shoes are a good way to dip into this trend.
The same goes for those pretty fondant pastels - peppermint, lilac, acqua, pink and lemon - which can look a bit tooth-achingly saccharine in clothing, but brilliantly directional when used to accessorise pale neutrals such as nude, cream and silver grey.
Sports luxe is a trend which, in clothing, will be mainly ignored by all women aged over, ooh, 17. However, when it comes to shoes, it is one trend everyone is already loving. Possibly because of the summer's London Olympics, or possibly because of a desire to participate in mundane activities like walking, doing the school run and using the underground, or perhaps because Isabel Marant made them so achingly covetable with her £450-a-pop wedge trainers last year, statement hi-tops and trainers, the footwear in which sports luxe manifests itself, are already huge.
Cleverly, Marant's trainers had the advantage of giving the wearer a bit of height - an attribute annoyingly absent from most trainers - as well as imbuing her with some serious fashion cred. While Marant has reprised them this season at similar prices, there are less pricey but equally covetable hi-tops, with and without a wedge.
Other key trends to look out for are Metallics, with gold, silver and pewter twinkling across everything from dressy courts and sandals to daytime brogues, and Print of every kind, notably animal and floral, lavished on every type of footwear, from sky-high courts to plimsolls, at every price range.