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TORONTO - Had enough of "it" bags? Behold the statement shoe.

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Keith Beaty/THE CANADIAN PRESS

Had enough of ‘it’ bags? Behold the statement shoe. After seasons of the cultish trend of handbags fetching prices rivalling those of cars and women accumulating entire wardrobes of must-have purses, shoes are stepping into the limelight as the new coveted accessory.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Toronto Star-Keith Beaty

Fashionable hgh-heel shoe is shown in a recent photo. Had enough of "it" bags? Behold the statement shoe. After seasons of the cultish trend of handbags fetching prices rivalling those of cars and women accumulating entire wardrobes of must-have purses, shoes are stepping into the limelight as the new coveted accessory.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Toronto Star-Keith Beaty

Fashionable hgh-heel shoe is shown in a recent photo. Had enough of "it" bags? Behold the statement shoe. After seasons of the cultish trend of handbags fetching prices rivalling those of cars and women accumulating entire wardrobes of must-have purses, shoes are stepping into the limelight as the new coveted accessory.

After seasons of the cultish trend of handbags fetching prices rivalling those of cars, shoes are stepping into the limelight as the new coveted accessory.

But not just any ordinary pump will do. Footwear design has taken on bold architectural shapes with surreal, fantastical and sometimes downright bizarre heels.

"No one wants a basic black pump anymore," says Barbara Atkin, vice-president of fashion direction at Holt Renfrew. "People are gravitating to heel art."

And some of the most spectacular heels that came down the runways for spring look exactly like that - an object of art.

Miuccia Prada sent out a sensuous velvet shoe with an art nouveau-influenced floral stalk as a heel, the perfect accompaniment to the erotic pixies featured in the prints on her clothing.

Architectural marvels were noticeable at Marni, where platforms had the sharp edges of a skyscraper, and at Jil Sander the nail-thin heel was held in place by a criss-cross of lattice resembling scaffolding. But the pump reached the height of perversity at Marc Jacobs. He went the surrealist route and showed a high-heel shoe with the heel missing, leaving the shoe seemingly suspended in mid-air, with the heel protruding horizontally from the toes.

"Surrealism is about looking at something in a new and different way," says Atkin. "And fashion is about fantasy. It's taking everyday things and twisting it up and bring it back in a new way. It's all about escape."