Christian Siriano Spring/Summer RTW 2011
Christian Siriano showed his collection yesterday. After last year’s collection, I was interested what he had to offer. He used Africa, India and China as his inspiration and his shoes sort of showed that. One pair looked liked the heel was made of chopsticks. Let’s look at a few of the shoes, and then some of the dresses.
It will be interesting to see how these translate to the Payless collection. The curved wooden heel is wonderful. I am not wild about the shiny curved heel, but I love the straps across the back.
I have read several reviews. One said the collection was wonderful. Another said it was a One Trick Pony. As I look at the the dresses the term that keeps coming to mind is, “Hot tranny mess.” There is nothing that makes me look twice, and I don’t see anything that looks red carpet wonderful. Lets see the dresses.
What to you think? I like parts of the shoes, but not the whole of any of them. I am not wild about any outfit presented.
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
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Help! I Need Travel Shoes!
Over the next few months I will be taking a number of short weekend trips (Portland, Las Vegas, and California’s Wine Country) and two larger tropical vacations (Hawaii and Belize). Shoe Blog readers, I need your help! I am absolutely terrible at packing light, but this needs to change ASAP.
During a week-long trip to Chicago and Milwaukee this summer, I realized that I always pack way too many shoes (flats, heels, tennis shoes, flip flops, and at least one extra pair). One easy way to remedy my heavy suitcase is to buy lightweight shoes that do “double duty.”
After reading Might Girl’s post on buying a pair of Tieks (which range in price from $135 to $235; the gold pair featured in this post is $165), I’m seriously considering buying an official pair of travel shoes. For those of you that don’t regularly read Mighty Girl, Maggie Mason is a traveling machine, so I do value her opinion on travel shoes.
But before I buy anything, I want your opinion. Please let me know all of your packing tips and your favorite travel shoes!
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
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Chanel Soho Exclusive Shoes and Bags
For the grand reopening of the Chanel 
Soho, New York Boutique on Friday, September 10th, a collection of limited edition shoes, ready to wear apparel, beauty products, and handbags will be available exclusive to the Soho Chanel boutique.
Footwear wise, there are about five types of footwear to purchase, all made of python (i.e. for California residents, this is off limits to you). This Chanel red python ballerina looks deliciously devilish and sinful but the price will be sure to alleviate the temptation.
For more information including pricing, contact the boutique at (212) 334-0055 or email soho2010exclusives@chanelusa.com
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
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Mark your Calendar for Fashion’s Night Out
New York Fashion Week starts this week. It will be at its new home at Lincoln Center. We will be covering the designer’s lines and the shoes they offer. New York understands that fashion is a billion dollar industry, and have planned several events to promote Fashon Week. Here are some of them.
Sept. 7 : Fashion’s Night Out: The Show, the city’s largest-ever public fashion show at Lincoln Center, with tickets starting at $25. According to Mayor Bloomberg, cbs.com will live-stream the runway show.
Sept. 10 : Fashion’s Night Out. So far, almost 1,000 stores have signed up to participate in Fashion’s Night Out and, once again, they have committed to keeping their doors open until 11 p.m.
Sept. 14: CBS will present an hour-long prime-time special on about the making of Fashion’s Night Out: The Show.
There are events that are happening all over the world. For your local area, check out the website and see what is happening where you are.
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
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Lanvin Python & Mongolian Fur Pumps
No surprise to any of our regular readers is the rather obvious fact that I like shoes. This is beyond the actual ’shoes I’d like to wear’ and into the land of ‘If I had an unlimited budget I’d consider opening a shoe-museum’. There are simply too many love-them or hate-them… yet always interesting-to-look-at shoes being made for me to own (let alone wear) even a fraction of the styles that pique my interest.
Lanvin python and Mongolian fur pumps $1990 via Net-a-porter
Today’s attention-getters are these too-much-going-on pumps from Lanvin. I don’t think I like them (I’m still digesting them, as it were), yet they fascinate me. They are more evidence of the growing trend of adding exterior-fur details as an artistic element of a shoe’s overall design. Normally, as we enter the fall/winter seasons, fur and shearling linings are the most common usage we see of these materials; their warmth value makes them a natural winter option. But, this increase in these fibers being used in the upper/decorative areas of shoes and boots could lead to some fascinating looks and textural details. While I am sure that I will not love all of the looks that come out of this, I look forward to finding out just where this experimentation might lead.
On a more serious note, on researching the source of the Mongolian fur trim of these shoes (most likely lambswool from nomadic Mongolian flocks) I encountered several articles devoted to last year’s tragic Mongolian winter; a winter so severe that close to 8 million herd animals died. This has left many nomadic herders struggling to survive with those few herd animals that remain. Selling their goat cashmere, lambswool and other herd skins is especially important to those now barely surviving this devastating event. This is a case where designer items are more likely to be directly sourced from smaller communities and suppliers. I certainly hope that is the case with much of the Mongolian fur that is coming onto the market right now. It might seem like the fur fringe is just a silly luxury. But, sometimes, these small details that we experience as ‘mere luxuries’ can have a real and positive trickle-down impact in other areas of the world.
I’d also like to ask that if any of our readers encounter more information on this topic – from which fashion houses are using/supporting micro-economies to companies that may be taking undue advantage of the situation to share it with us here. I love to know more about the background events that may be occurring underneath the more obvious surface trends that we see at retail – this type of information can really help those of us who want to arm ourselves with the knowledge to make informed and ethical consumer decisions.
Related information:
Treehugger.com, February 12, 2010
Mother Nature Network, March 30, 2010
UN Report on Mongolian Winter, January 22, 2010
Donation Site (Cambridge Mongolia Donation Appeal)
Pastoral Nomadism of Mongolia (General Information)
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
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Rebecca Minkoff Shoes
Rebecca Minkoff announced she is expanding her handbag and ready-to-wear portfolio with the introduction of a 25-style shoe collection. The footwear will be offered in stores for spring and will make their debut at Minkoff’s ready to wear presentation next month during fashion week in New York. The shoes are supposed to retail for $160 to $395.
Here are some shoes that will be offered.
Vamp Pump
Brooke Shoe
Doll Bootie
Vixen Pump.
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
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Body Art: Good Thing or Not
So I went to a wedding last weekend, the dresses were beautiful, the shoes were lovely, but everyone in the briday party had body art. Maybe it is a generational thing, but when I see tatoos, especially on women AND especially when the women are dressed up, the first thing I think is “Eeww.”
Then I was wandering around online and saw this photo. It is Kat Vod D promoting the opening of her new Gallery in West Hollywood. Here is a bangin body, a pretty face, a wonderful dress, and great shoes. I understand the reason for Kat’s tats (tee hee) is part of her self-promotion, but the body ink just detracted the attention from her outfit.
I told my daughter that in 50 years, nurses in care centers will be sniggering about tramp stamps, full sleeves and boob/chest tatoos on the 80 year old patients. She just rolled her eyes at me.
So, what do you think? Is body art attractive? Is it distractive?
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Brian Atwood to Launch B Brian Atwood Line
Brian Atwood and Jones Apparel Group announced today a new footwear and accessory line called B Brian Atwood. According to Atwood, the new accessories collection will be inspired by the “East Village girls who have great style”.
The collection will feature shoes priced between $200 and $500 with an initial launch planned to commence in fall 2011. While that’s less expensive than the main line, this isn’t exactly affordable to the masses as B Brian Atwood is not a diffusion line but a compliment to the main line.
Tell me, are you excited about B Brian Atwood? I’m going to reserve judgment until I see the styles and quality of the shoes.
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
View full post on ShoeBlog
Brian Atwood to Launch New B Brian Atwood Line
Brian Atwood and Jones Apparel Group announced today a new footwear and accessory line called B Brian Atwood. According to Atwood, the new accessories collection will be inspired by the “East Village girls who have great style”.
The collection will feature shoes priced between $200 and $500 with an initial launch planned to commence in fall 2011. While that’s less expensive than the main line, this isn’t exactly affordable to the masses as B Brian Atwood is not a diffusion line but a compliment to the main line.
Tell me, are you excited about B Brian Atwood? I’m going to reserve judgment until I see the styles and quality of the shoes.
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
View full post on ShoeBlog
Alaia Lasercut Haircalf Suede Booties
Alaia cutout calf hair platform pumps $2375 via Net-a-porter.
These layered, laser-cut overlay booties almost make me wish I could get married all over again just to have an excuse to own them. They visually scream, “Unforgettable fall wedding.” Lucky, indeed, is the gal who scores these beautiful ankle boots to wear under her wedding gown.
Just look at the close-up detail on these:
They are breathtakingly beautiful, and not a rhinestone to be found anywhere.
I don’t even know who that lucky bride is, but I am already more than a teensy bit jealous of her wearing these fabulous shoes. Here’s hoping the rest of her wedded life is a spectacular as her wedding shoes.
Authentic Shops:
Designer Shoes at Zappos.com
Saks Fifth Avenue
View full post on ShoeBlog