Spring Shoes: Au Naturel Styles Under $100

I was at the hair salon yesterday, catching up on my magazine reading. (Oh, yes, and getting my hair done.) True confession: I'm a mag hag. I love reading magazines, everything from Elle to New Yorker to Coastal Living. February is a favorite month for magazine reading because the fashion magazines start reporting the spring trends. It's very encouraging. Outside, large clumps of dirty snow won't melt because it's bitter cold. But inside the cover of In Style, pictures of pretty sandals and thin, floral dresses assure me that warmer weather is on the way.

Yesterday, I was admiring all the spring 2011 shoes. Shoes and sandals are looking very au naturel for spring. The leather is nude, sand and brown, while the heels and wedges are made of cork, straw or wood. The Softspots Pacific slingbacks at the top of this post are a perfect example. They're $74. Below is a sample of other trendy styles, all for under $100. For this post, I'm focusing on lower-to-medium (no more than 2 and 1/2") heels, since really high heels aren't an option for most over 50 women I know. But there are plenty of 3" and 4" heels, if your feet can still take that sort of elevation. I've also included neutral colors--white and gray--since those are also "hot" colors this spring.




Naturalizer Javas for $74






Clarks Elements Wellfleet Tbar for $94









Blowfish Butter for $59




Okay, I'm cheating a little with these Blowfish Casita for $49. They don't have cork, straw or wood heel. But they're cloth and that's natural, right? I really included them because the multi-strap sandal is very "hot" this spring.














Indigo by Clarks Plush Alpaca for $90










Softspots Harmon for $64









Softspots Neima for $74










Pikolinos Paris 7672 reduced from $150 to $99











Softspots Ventura for $74




Steve Madden has tons of trendy sandals with very high wedges. This SEZER TAUPE SDE for $89.95 is one of the shoe makers' lower wedges. Click on the shoe and it will take you to the Steve Madden site, where you can peruse the other styles.