One of the biggest style dilemmas facing many Upper Street customers is where can I find stylish shoes that I can wear to work? You want an individual look, but have to observe a dress code, you love a heel but this is not always practical, you want a shoe that works across your work wardrobe, but please, no more black!

To help you solve your 9-5 shoe dilemmas, we spent some time with Katy Chandler and Julia Grinham, Upper Street’s co-founders and rifled through their shoe collections for their go-to shoes for the working day.

Chic and practical heels

Camel Patent Snake and  Burgundy platform peep toe

Katy: “I love a more classic shoe style, so I went for a camel patent and snakeskin palette which works across all my working wardrobe. I need some stability with my heels so I love the Upper Street platform court. It comes with a 0.5″ platform and 4.5″ heel which gives me height and presence – always useful in a business meeting! without compromising on comfort.” Browse our platform court gallery for more shoe inspiration

Julia: “I often have to attend meetings and events with people from the fashion industry, so I need to ensure my heels stand out and represent the latest Upper Street trends. This Autumn/Winter a key Upper Street trend is Autumn Berries and I love these rich burgundy suede peep toes which I’ve contrasted with violet snakeskin. Not only is burgundy a must-wear colour this season, it creates a brilliant colour block with navy and black – which I wear a lot.” Browse our Autumn Berries gallery and platform peep toe gallery for more shoe inspiration.

A lower heel option

Navy mix platform and  Monochrome brogue

Katy: “Navy is a brilliant, verstaile colour to wear for work, but I found it impossible to find a stylish ready-made heel to buy – which is why Upper Street is such a God send! I wanted something with more impact than plain leather, so my navy mix platform is designed with an asymmetrical front in suede and snakeskin with a snakeskin platform. I’ve gone for a 3.5″ heel with a 0.25″ platform. You can now order this style and heel height with a block heel.”

Julia: “You may have spotted this monochrome brogue on Upper Street as it’s September’s Shoe of the Month! What I love about this shoe is that it works two major trends – brogue detailing and Mary Janes which are very popular for AWW11, yet the black and white palette is a style classic. I like my shoes to work as hard as I do!” Browse our Mary Janes gallery and  Monochrome gallery for more inspiration.

When we need to go low…

2.25″ black animal round toe court

Katy: “I love the elegance of these burgundy peep toes with their almond toe shape and beautifully balanced proportions, which don’t make my size 9 feet look huge! I also love our Autumn Berries trend, and went for burgundy patent as it’s practical for everyday wear, although I personalised with a suede bow and snakeskin counter.”  Upper Street low heel options

Julia: “My go-to low heel option is this black animal classic round toe court with a 2.25″ heel. It’s a sophisticated style and the heel height is perfect for when I’m going from the school run, to meetings, to a fashion show. I love I can wear it with everything in my wardrobe and always looks smart and appropriate.” To order a 2.25″ round toe,  select the 3.75″ round toe court in the Shoe Designer and then select a 2.25″ heel at checkout. Upper Street low heel options

Join Katy and Julia in a live Facebook Q&A

Thanks Katy and Julia for sharing your shoes and if you visit the Upper Street Facebook wall on Wednesday 28th September at 12pm (Midday GMT) Katy and Julia will be online to answer your questions on Upper Street. Please come and post a question for them!

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.

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In the last of our Autumn/Winter trend reports, we’re focusing on the perfect transitional shoe: the pointed court. After being shunned for seasons in favour of the platform court, the pointed court is back as the chic shoe accompaniment to the sophisticated dresses, skirts and tailoring seen on the AW11 catwalks. Upper Street’s pointed court shoes come with an elegantly tapered 3.75″ heel: high enough to length your legs and low enough that you don’t worry you’ll fall over when you actually try to put one foot in front of the other. Make no mistake, pointed courts are the shoes that separate the women from the girls this Autumn.

Mix your skins with a pointed court

Upper Street python pointed court

Leather skirts were featured in many collections and can be dressed down for the day and dressed up for night. Here at Upper Street we love the chic tailoring of this Chloe ivory pencil skirt which is smart enough for external meetings and chic enough to take us to dinner after. To contrast with the leather and colour, we’ve picked an Upper Street python court. The heel of the pointed court helps define the curves of your leg and with a pencil skirt, you’ll excude an air of sophistication. As an alternative to snakeskin, you could customise your pointed courts with patent leather, contrasting satin or leather.

Dress up your jeans

Purple leopard court and  Zebra Court

We love our jeans here at Upper Street, and while flats are great for day, at night we want to dress up our jeans. We’re wearing cropped styles, the new hot length for Autumn/Winter. We’ve paired our ankle-length J Brand Maria jeans in Ozzy with two animals: a purple leopard court with contrasting black snakeskin heel, perfect for when we’re ready to rock’n'roll and a zebra court with contrasting red patent heel for monochrome with a twist. You can customise your pointed courts with alternative animal skins or add a contrasting heel or counter back for your unique take on an animal pointed court.

24 hour Metallics

Pewter snakeskin court

A shirt dress is our go-to outfit when we’re on the go all day and partying at night. This Autumn with metallics and the 70′s as key trends, we’ve snapped up this shimmering Halston dress in gold satin-jersey. We’ll be mixing our metals with an Upper Street pewter snakeskin pointed court with an asymmetrical front in Studio 54 inspired metallic turquoise. As an alternative to metallics, you could customise your pointed courts with satin to match the dress or opt for the sophistication of the simple black leather pointed court.

For inspiration on the perfect Upper Street pointed court take a look at our pointed courts gallery.

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.

Images sourced from Upper Street, Net-A-Porter, Donna Ida

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Autumn Winter 2011 is the time to shine and metallics shades, always a key evening trend, have now crossed over into daywear. Gold is a key evening metallic staple – embrace the 20′s American glamour as seen in ‘Boardwalk Empire’ with a gold T-bar heel. Gold metallic flowers and gems bring an Art Deco touch whilst metallic leathers, snakeskin and satin are all key fabrics. For those looking for a more subtle alternative, white gold is pure molten perfection.

For daywear, gold T-bars work beautifully with the 40′s inspired tea dresses as seen at Miu Miu and Marni. To keep the look modern, a metallic platform adds essential height and compliments the longer hemlines that are around this season. Try designing with deeper hued metallics such as bronze and copper for a day heel with a rich luxurious feel.

Gold bronze T-bar sandal, Gold round toe brogue

Return to the glamour and decadence of the 70′s with a platform sandal with contrasting bronze leather and gold snakeskin T-bar. Wear with flares or with a jumpsuit at night for a Studio 54/Halston vibe! Go back in time even further to this season’s other time-travelling trend, the 40′s and pair these gold snake and leather brogues with a pretty tea dress.

Gold bronze platform peep toe, White gold snake bow peep toe

For a versatile metallic heel to take you through the party season in style, try an asymmetrical design like this peep toe platform in bronze and pewter snake. The perfect shoe to compliment a cocktail dress or wide leg trousers and a YSL inspired Le Smoking jacket. These white gold leather peep toes have been given a touch of shimmering glamour with a contrasting metallic gold snake platform and bow – for a different feel, try designing a similar shoe with a flower, Swarovski jewel cluster or a buckle.

Gold black patent brogue, Gold snake pointed court

Metallics are too good to save for after dark alone. This season the fash pack will be bringing a little shine to their daylight hours with metallics in the form of clothing and accessories. Mix up masculine tailoring with these elegant gold leather and black patent brogues for workwear. For full on glamour dazzle in these gold snake pointed courts with a delicate ankle strap embellished with Swarovski diamante – show stopping and sexy and if you choose a lower heel option you’ll be dancing all night!

If you’re lusting after lustrous heels to bring a little shimmer to the long winter months, visit our design studio and create a pair of bespoke shoes guaranteed to bring a twinkle to your eye! Our Metallics inspiration feature and glitter laden shoe gallery will help to provide inspiration and if you’re still stuck for sparkle suggestions.

Upper Street shoes come in a huge range of sizes from the petite 33 (UK 1.5) to the generous 43 (UK 10) with 4 width fittings. We also offer free alterations to fit and we’re so confident that you’ll love your final design that we’ll refund you if you don’t!

To book an appointment in our London Studio, email iloveshoes@upperstreet.com or call us on 0845 680 9365.

If you can’t make it the studio but still want to see our full range of luxurious materials, visit our Upper Street Swatch Store.Whether you’d like to experience the richness of our suedes, feel the silken quality of our sumptuous Italian satins or visualise our glossy patents as a shoe, you can order as many swatches as you want!

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.

Burgundy suede peep toe, Tan pointed d’Orsay court

If you’re determined to kick up the autumn leaves in style during the coming months, read on to find out how to keep your feet seasonally on trend with our Autumn Berries daywear feature. There’s a myriad of wearable AW11 trends to pick and choose from, all of which can be beautifully complimented by a bespoke Upper Street shoe design. All you have to do is decide which one you’ll be working!

Snake platform court

Bring a touch of 70′s luxe to your daywear wardrobe in retro print dresses like this one by Gucci. Echo the 70′s era right down to your toes by opting for platform courts – this chocolate orange snake platform is given that extra 70′s twist by the fabulous snakeskin finish.

Chocolate triple strap brogue

Brogues are the perfect autumn winter accompaniment when served up with a helping of this seasons masculine tailoring as seen here on the catwalk at Paul Smith. These glossy chocolate and nude patent brogues would bring a touch of androgynous chic to your office tailoring.

Burgundy snake Mary Jane platforms

One of our favourite AW11 catwalk shoe styles was the elegant Mary Jane – wear with feminine tailoring such as this camel hued Oscar de la Renta dress. Add instant style points and a pop of rich autumn colour with these burgundy snake Mary Jane courts with a camel platform and heel accent.

If the berry toned shoes shown here fuel your desire to own the perfect AW11 Upper Street shoe, take a look at our Autumn Berries feature for further inspiration or gaze at our earthy toned, autumnal shoe gallery.

Upper Street - the made-to-order luxury shoe label where you can design your own individual shoes and have them delivered right to your door.

Image source: Style.com, Net-A-Porter