Village by MIA

It takes a ... well, you know: Village by MIA weaves simple lines for a clean look.

Sometimes we wonder at the provenance of a shoe's name. Village? Were the designers at MIA inspired by country living, peasants, field labor, M. Night Shyamalan? Movies aside, the stripped-down, clean lines of the Village would certainly support that. Somewhat. On closer inspection we notice the three-strap construction meets at a common joint under the ankle and splays out in sophisticated parabolas like the Sydney Opera House. Perhaps the Village we're really thinking of is a bit more of the Internet variety – the "global village" of the '90s.

Look at us. Our laptops and smart phones and on-demand Netflix and, what, iPads? Are we ever not connected? We're going to think of the Village as inspired by the escape of the digital citizen to those fabled remote backroads where wi-fi is some kind of farm instrument and the airwaves are unstained by Bluetooth. This place does not actually exist for us, but the look can.

The Village is simple function raised to a Bauhuasian standards of beauty. It is spare and unadorned. It does not come with GPS. But the graceful sweep of its leather straps is elegant and placed to carefully divide and highlight the foot: the toe, the arch, the ankle, the heel, the calf.

Use Village accordingly. Build a summer outfit in sections that are easy and elegant and in support of showing off you. The combined effect of so much thoughtfulness will create that je ne sais quoi that draws people to you for no particular reason, save that you simply look so ... put-together. Dress simply and carry a lot of electronics. We're sanguine at the confluence of technology and our lives ... as long as we dress for it appropriately.