"Fruity colors" make shoes more exciting. Photo by Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin

But instead of tasting these confections, you wear them on your feet.

The bright colors appeal to all shoppers, said Will Wenzell, Liberty House-Ala Moana shoe department manager.

"I would almost say I don't know any group that doesn't buy the shoes," Wenzell said. "Younger students are buying it. Tourists are buying it."

The shoes are fun and sexy.

"Fashion is about fun and excitement and I think black-and-white have been overdone for the past couple of years," Wenzell said. "Customers are demanding something more exciting. Suede leather or crocodile prints are kinda fun and real exotic looking."

Wenzell said women are looking for canary-yellow strappy suede and jewel-tone slide shoes because they've seen them in magazines. Open-toe and strappy styles have plenty of feminine appeal.

"They're not big and clunky. They're not shocking at all and they blend very well with what people are wearing," Wenzell said.

Gucci's snake-skin strappy in bright blue and green and Donna Karan's designs are the most popular styles at Liberty House.

Mariese Montano-Smith describes the summer-spring collection at Escada as offering "fruity colors," and is proving color is not just for the very young.

Montano-Smith says buyers for their pink pumps and green-apple mules are mostly middle-aged people who can well afford shoes that sell for the cost of a round-trip airline ticket to the West Coast.

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