Category Archives: Shoes

All about shoes

First pastel of the season

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Well, it looks like I won’t be able to run away from the pretty pastels – not that I don’t love them, but they were super in around 2001, and I had so many that I didn’t think I would bring myself to ever wearing it again. Plus, they are really unforgiving colours, revealing every body imperfection!!!

However, with the imminent pastels overload for spring, I have already given in and purchased an item I fell completely in love with (damn you newsletters!) – the stunning Esme shoes from Kurt Geiger. In one had, you have the delicate pastels, but on the other you have the spikes, which really give them an edge.

Now, you may remember I fell in love with a glittery KG not too long ago, but this one was stronger than me, when I slipped my foot in, I knew I had to bring them home. So I used the Elle KG voucher to take £25 off my guilty conscience and voilá!

Don’t you just love them? What about you? Have you bought any pastels yet or you are not succumbing the the paler palette this season?


Aldo Rise shoe collection

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A JW Anderson, my favourite so far

The designer/high street collaboration is something that excites me in concept: designer goods at affordable prices, blah blah blah. However, from all the amazing H&M collaborations, I only managed to get hold of a pair of Jimmy Choos (and from eBay). It’s so maniac that no matter how much I love an item, I just don’t have the disposition to queue the whole night to get my hands on it.

Yesterday I came across the Aldo Rise line with its motto “Fashion is no longer a commandment, it’s a collaboration”, and was very impressed by the designers taking part. Of course this would grab my attention immediately, as they are shoes, but seeing names like JW Anderson, Preen, Mark Fast, Christian Cota, Cushnie et Ochs and Libertine really excites me, not only for the designs themselves but also for the prices of around £135. You can see some at this Vogue picture gallery.

Now, I absolutely loved Cushnie et Ochs Spring/Summer 2012 collection, it was among my picks at NY Fashion week, and I am very much looking forward to seeing the shoes they will come up with for Aldo!

New shoes – Zara black peep toes!

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Zara shoes, Dani Dutra

Following my constant drooling at Vogue’s 100 best shoes gallery, and also the mention of pairs for every budget, I ended up succumbing to a lovely pair that was one of my favourites amongst their selection: super pretty black peep toes from Zara, with a killer spikey heel and lovely golden rimmed flower petals in the back.

I found this shoes to be a real bargain at £49.99,  as they are 100% goat skin. They are super high at a towering 13 cm (and a concealed platform of almost 3cm), and a bit hard, but I think that they will be easy to break into and reasonably comfortable when I do, as the leather is super soft.

Cannot wait to wear them!

Still thinking about the glittery KG shoes, but trying to resist… I am a little less obsessed, but it has been hard. I hope I am strong enough, I don’t think I really need those shoes (in the sensible way – I was never one for the glitter shoes, really). I have been *very* good so far, maybe will wait until the sales and buy then!

Shoe porn!

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Unmissable: 100 best shoes for Autumn/Winter 2011-12, courtesy of Vogue UK, and with options for all pockets – nice one!

Very hard to choose your favourite, but mine has to be the super fierce Louboutin crystal and studs covered Pigalili (pictured), followed by a lovely spikey heel Zara number, a killer Camilla Skovgaard skyscraper and a metallic textured Nicholas Kirkwood pair…  I so could go on!

Check the full gallery here

*Drool*

The Christian Louboutin story by Net-a-Porter

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Mr. Louboutin is everywhere this week, celebrating the 20th anniversary of his shoe making wonderful wizardry.

Amongst TV appearances, book signings and others, Net-a-Porter also decided to mark the date by creating this super cute video, fairy-telling Christian Louboutin’s story.

I am sure I don’t even need to mention how much I *love* his shoes, so it comes to no surprise I adored this video – hope you enjoy!

Latest shoe crush

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I know, *another* shoe crush… but I cannot help myself, had to register it here, as I’ve been wanting these Kurt Geiger Enautre shoes in gold for more than ten days – was secretly expecting to forget all about them, but it hasn’t happened.

They are glittery, they are high, they are hot. I am not sure why, but I have been obsessing about glittery shoes since I realised I have none in my collection! Sacrilege! I particularly like this one because the glitter on it is very fine,  and almost imperceptibly, multicoloured, although it has a gold overall colour.

While I keep thinking about it, I am still debating whether to buy or not. The price is not too bad, at £130, but after spending a lot on the latest Shoe Fund pair recently, I can’t quite justify… plus, it is time to buy practical winter footwear, as the colder weather is rapidly taking over (I have my eyes on lovely knee-high tan flat (ish) boots from River Island). A few other brands, like Topshop, have glittery high heels for half the price… but these KG ones are amazing, and like no other.

What to do?!

Why do women wear painful heels?

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Shoe God

According to Christian Louboutin, it is because wearing heels makes you (feel) more desirable – it is all about seduction in various levels – and the price paid (discomfort) is small when put against the benefits.

Well, quite. I certainly feel that way, and have for years, actually mentioning it many times, obviously never worth of publishing as I am not famous OR an spectacular shoe designer – but I have feet, and wear high heels – it is good to see my point validated!

Historically, think about corsets that squeezed the life out of you or Elizabethan era hair dye that had side effects including nose bleeds, to name just a couple – which were common practice, all done in the name of being perceived and feeling more desirable.

Less to do with being more seductive (but not excluding the possibility), my decision on wearing a pair of shoes has a lot to do with the way it makes me feel – could be sexy, but also serious, powerful, playful or dare I say, tarty – not only portraying  the person I am, exposing my personality, but also the person I want to be, in general or on that particular occasion. Needless to say, this applies to other aspects of my life, but it is more pronounced on my shoe choices.

However extreme it may sound, I am not afraid of painful feet (especially when you have bunions like mine!) if I feel fabulous. Having said all that, I do consider myself to be very good with heels, I usually have no problems dancing for many hours on 4in+ shoes.

Admittedly, I have drastically reduced the frequency with which I wear high heels in the past 18 months, as my knee is not great (and even though I don’t see a direct correlation between my knee pain and wearing heels, I decided to lay off them a bit as a preventative measure), and I avoid walking too much on them (if I get public transport, and walk to/from stations, I do so in flats, carrying my heels).

Some of Mr Louboutin’s very interesting statements on the subject, including my favourite about the shoe playing with women’s inner characters, can be found on Vogue. Obvioulsy, when he mentions “this little act of discomfort”, I take that Mr Louboutin  never wore his own Rolandos for the very first time to try to break into them. Ouch!

Clothes swap party

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One of the items I bagged - love it!

I am very excited to say that, for the very first time, I did something I had wanted to do for ages: attend a clothes swap party. It was organised by a friend who, after having so much fun at one in the past, decided to host her own.

For me it was the perfect excuse to perform my biannual wardrobe season change – this is when, for pure lack of space (or as my boyfriend seems to suggest, too many items – crazy – you can’t have too many, right?!), I put all the bygone season clothes in suitcases and shove them in the loft. They then come out around six months later, and the cycle is complete! I often use the opportunity to review my collection and get rid of clothes that made in and out of the loft a couple of times and haven’t been worn. Usually, they end up in the charity shop, but this time they had a different destination.

Armed with some nibbles, I pulled a small suitcase packed with a mix of  clothes (some I really liked and had worn a fair bit, others a bought and didn’t sit well or were simply not my style) all the way to my friend’s house, where I was met by around eight other girls holding glasses of bubbly. Promising!

The format was pretty straight forward: you went in the middle of the room, opened your case, showed each item and the ladies interested asked to try them on. If there were no takers, the garment would join a pile on the floor, for later perusal or disposal. If two or more parts were interested, they would all try the disputed item and sometimes this alone would solve it, otherwise, negotiations would commence – all very friendly, flattering but honestly on how the other part looked to decide who the item was better suited for, with all the girls giving opinions! I pretty much got everything I wanted, and I have the feeling everyone was satisfied with their new acquisitions. I certainly took more items with me to the party than I brought home, and this was my intention from the offset!

The vast majority of my items were tried on by more than one girl (it feels nice when other people like your taste!), and two lovely dresses went to a good home – they were sexy numbers, and I am sure she will do them justice!

I ended up with a flower print full skirt dress, which I wore to work the day after, a pair of high heel grey boots, a wool wrap mini skirt, a pencil skirt with leather panels on the side, a skirt suit, a bright pink lipstick, a hair volumising spray and the best of all, three MAC brushes (227,212 and 275)!!!

A great experience altogether, I would certainly do it again. It worked very well and I loved it, plus,  it makes so much sense –  I cannot see a better way of recycling and exploring styles that you might not necessarily go for, as well as making new friends and most of all, having a LOT of fun. And the clothes which ended up unclaimed, were gathered by the hosts to be taken to the nearest charity shop. Nice!

A feast of very exotic shoes

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Oh, Popeye!

I recently came across the Virtual Shoe Museum website, after receiving an email with lots of shoes from the designer Kobi Levi.

Showcasing material about art and design of shoes, the site has footwear craft and creativity abundantly splashed around.

With designs ranging from “different” to “completely insane”, the site contains heaps of information on designers, description of most concepts, and simply TONS of shoes (fear not, to wade through the vast amount of items, you can narrow your search by colour material, style and plenty more) and  I have to say, the photos are the best part of it, with many angles shown for many of the fantastic shoes. Well worth spending some time browsing through.

Most of shoes displayed are real works of art,  so push wearability, comfort and common sense aside, this is a true feast for the eyes of a shoe lover like myself.

Here are the Kobi Levi’s adorable pictures I received:

Happy birthday Shoe Galleries!

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Selfridge's Shoe Galleries

Last night I attended one of the events celebrating the first anniversary of the biggest shoe department in the world, the  Selfridges  Shoe Galleries. Situated on the second floor of the London store, the gallery is home to 55,000 shoes at any one time and 4,000 shoes on display, from over 150 brands. It is a fantastic place, on one hand, my dream, for obvious reasons, but also my nightmare, because I want to buy them all!

Upon arrival, I was lured to the area surrounding a small catwalk by the music of a live band.  Not long after I found a seat, extremely good looking waiters brought little bottles of Pommery POP champagne for the dozens of ladies waiting, and Grazia’s fashion editor, Sophie Ferguson Jones, opened the event by talking about shoes and handbags trends for this season. Soon enough, the more than F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S Miss J Alexander, from America’s Next Top Model, started running the show and picked girls from the audience to strut their stuff on the catwalk, giving them tips on how to improve their walk.

Beautiful ballerinas also made an appearance and there were other activities going on around the whole floor, such as foot mapping (like palm reading, but for the feet!), several prize draws and customisation.

I really love this type of event, overall it was a like a big party with lovely atmosphere, Miss J provided endless laughter and the champagne flowed enough to keep me happy – all surrounded by the most amazing shoes in the world!

For more on events at Selfridges, visit their What’s on page.