Automotivation

As with everything sartorial, I'm pretty much at least six months behind the trend. These shoes, from Prada's 2012 spring collection, were widely flagged up in editorial fashion pages earlier in the year. I have borrowed this photo from a site called Autoguide.com, which noted that the designs referenced classic American cars of the Fifties, borrowing details such as chrome, lights, wings and flames. So pretty (and so crazy). There's considerable scope for  the imaginitive combining of cars and femininity: the suggestive back seat, the skin-soft leather, the mirrors, the headlights. The soft top that can conceal or reveal. The grimace of the grille at the front.

The reverse has potential, too; this drawing is by the sublime Tomi Ungerer, from his book 'Horrible', and is made particularly wonderful by the uncertain expression of the chap behind the wheel.