When will Pierre Hardy stop making his shoes so damn covetable? It's not just that they are merely pretty and will have women cooing and drooling over them in the way that women are stereotypically supposed to do. It's that Pierre Hardy is always able to add an element of surprise and incorporate that with his architectural approach towards footwear. For S/S 09, Hardy went to the beach for inspiration, an obvious choice perhaps for summer but when he comes back with surfers' neoprene and the neon colours associated with surfgear,  the washed out colours of bleak seaside piers and sailor's rope and then proceeds to mesh all of that with the shapes that he has developed, the collection no longer feels thematic or one dimensional. The neoprene, primarily in fluoro pink  and muted by subdued colours like navy, putty and pale blue, is used on platform and flat sandals and bags. Chunky grey rope adds detailing and robustness to sandals and heels. The washed out colours seen at dilapidated and neglected seasides are transplanted to bags, and also to the menswear collection which is a decidedly muted affair, consisting of brogues, boater shoes and light desert boots. Another play on materials can be seen with the styles that manage to use bra straps in the construction of the shoes, detectable only when you look closely at the elastic.  The menswear collection is also strengthened with the new Colourama shoe which this time uses a pastel palette to fill in the colour blocks on the trainer that has gained a cult following from both men and women.