The sunny season's best shoes are slip on, slip off

Sometime around early March, following a long and unreasonable stint at the business end of Britain’s grimmest weather, thoughts turn to new clothes. Suddenly, we have had enough of heavy fabrics, enough of rain-ready outerwear, enough of layers. We want delicate clothes that billow in a coastal breeze and convey our sun-soaked insouciance. We want sunglasses, light jackets and linen tailoring. We want shoes that can be slipped into a carry-on with minimal fuss.

This summer, those shoes will likely take one of two forms. First, as a driving loafer, which looks to be making something of a comeback. The style is perhaps best typified by the Gommino by Tod’s, an uber-popular, easy-wearing slip-on, upon which the Italian brand has built an empire. ‘Gommino’ means ‘pebble’, and refers to the underside of the shoe, where a solid sole has been substituted for an array of tiny rubber ‘gommini’.

Though Tod’s popularised the form – further typified by a stitched moccasin toe and soft construction for better tactility on the pedals of a car – it did not invent it. That was another Italian brand, Car Shoe, in the 1960s, which was later bought by Prada. When Connolly owner Isabel Etedgui first opened a London store three decades ago, she stocked Car Shoe shoes.

‘I have had a bee in my bonnet since then to create [Connolly’s own] driving shoe that actually is really comfortable to wear when you’re not driving,’ said Etedgui at a recent in-conversation event with shoe designer Álvaro González, ‘and that was always the slight problem with the bobbily one.’

Well, Connolly now has that non-bobbily driver, designed by González. It is sleeker and narrower than the classic shape, and built with glove-making techniques that stitch the thin, solid sole to the upper.

There are great drivers at Gucci and Louis Vuitton this season, too. And at Prada, the driver has equally been put back in focus – although, rendered in black leather, with a sleek Prada logo on the tongue, it is perhaps more Berlin than Balearic. Prada states that the shoe is created via an 800-step, handmade process, so it should fit comfortably, wherever you wear it.

The other summer shoe making early strides is the sort of low-profile, barely-there sneaker. Following on from the recent trend for minimalist, slide-on leather mules, a wave of delicate lace-up trainers is hoving into view, courtesy of the likes of Celine, Dries Van Noten, Hermès and Loewe.

All are unified by a thin sole and a low, elongated upper that recalls 1970s running shoes. Celine’s Flat Sneaker, for example, is positively balletic; available in a range of retro colour combinations, it features suede, velvet and calfskin. The Jet sneaker at Hermès is a little more hefty, but equally as old school, and would look especially good with a gently flared trouser or McEnroe-style short-shorts. Seriously.

Now all you need is for the weather to play ball, too.