Arch Deluxe : It’s Anything but Plain Old Canvas or Leather for Summer’s Fashion-Conscious Low-Tops

As a recent guest on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,� singer k.d. lang invited viewers into her backstage dressing room to see her concert wardrobe. Holding up a pair of plastic burgundy Airwalk sneakers, she told the TV audience: “This is my newest vibe onstage. I know boots look cool. But you can’t dance in boots.�

Whether they’re for dancing or just cruising around town, sneakers rule. And we don’t mean those bulky, futuristic-looking athletic things. We’re talking strictly fashion.

“Sneakers are completely chic and very club now,� says Airwalk designer Chelle Orenstein. “Everyone is dressing down, so it’s become more acceptable to wear them with something like a floral dress or a pair of khakis. . . . But they have to have a twist to them to make them look a little new and fun.�

That twist is the shoes’ unconventional surfaces. Vans, Airwalk, Converse and Simple are among the makers adapting everything from pearlized vinyl and rubber to mesh, terry cloth, even that screaming-yellow tennis ball material, into fashion-forward footwear.

The inspiration, they say, came straight off the runways. “Vinyl is very hot right now in fashion,� says Tomoko Hori-Callery, “athleisure� footwear manager for Converse. “So it makes sense to see how that material plays in footwear.�

But the sneaker makers say they know their limitations. “I don’t think we’ve necessarily gone to an extreme,� says Hori-Callery. “Something like terry cloth is very familiar. It says ‘comfort’ just by looking at it.�