It’s been a long time that I’ve been looking for a pair of spats to add some flair to my shoe wardrobe. I’ve tried tracking them down in vintage clothing stores, through ebay, and through various online shops. But none of them have really hit me right. However, recently, there seems to be a noticeable resurgence in interest in spats, because people have started to sell them in more interesting designs.

Spatterdash has been selling men’s spats and pocket squares for the dapper gentleman for a while now, and they’ve recently come out with a line of women’s ankle spats, which includes your basic white

and some more snazzy choices like leopard print and red satin

There’s also the UK-based company Strumpets, which is a big favorite of uniquely styled celebs like Gwen Stefani. Elizabeth Melinek, the Strumpets designer, makes high fashion spats that make me drool. Check out some examples

You can’t buy them online easily, but you might be able to find a pair if you hunt for them.  Or you can check the stockists page and see if there’s a store near you that sells them.

And then, for a whole different look, you can turn to Maide, a German company that makes these incredibly detailed, gorgeous spats.  They may look like they belonged to someone three or four generations ago, but they’re really just incredibly finely made.  If you’re interested in these, use the contact info on the site to see if they’re still available and what the prices are.  Be prepared for them to be high… that’s all I’m sayin’.

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This week’s This Week in Shoes comes to you a bit late, since I was buried in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows all weekend and completely removed (for once) from the footwear world.  So, more accurately, here is Last Week in Shoes.

What did the footwear world bring us of note last week?

Well, how about a pair of 200-300 year old children’s shoes being discovered during the renovation of an old pub? They’re believed to have been hung in the pub to ward of evil and unlucky spirits.

Grand Mademoiselle talks delicious shiny patent leather.

Manolo shows us that Jack Nicholson, too, has succumbed to the HORROR of Crocs! 

And speaking of Crocs, the Most Crocs Worn in a Week award goes to Violet Affleck, daughter of Ben and Jennifer Garner, who was spotted not once, not twice, but THREE times in different pairs of Crocs over the past week.  Now, she happens to be adorable and can get away with them, because on kids they look cute.  But man!  That’s a lot of Crocs!

Here’s a recommendation from the folks at Shoeaholics Anonymous of a brilliant product that’s designed to keep flip flops and thong sandals from rubbing between your toes.  Smart!
 

And finally, check out this interview in ELLE with Bruno Frisoni, the man currently in charge of Roger Vivier. (Thanks to Freud for the scan).

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Now that the Harry Potter mania is about to reach the same levels as the iPhone one, with certain people queuing at Barnes and Noble early in the morning to read its thrilling conclusion (and you know who you are), perhaps it’s time to think of ways to greet the wizardry fest shod in some proper witch shoes.

If you’re on a budget, of course, you can go with these:

…cheap witch shoes which you can get for $30 here and there on the internets.

But if you can conjure some riches with the tip of your magic wand, here’s a much more fabulous option:

Casadei 4768 Red Velvet Boots, $451 on Zappos (and that’s almost half off). Now, that’s kicking it in style!

Or if the knee-high length is sort of overkill for ya, there are these (by comparison) understated booties:

Etro 6028 purple sueded booties with croc trim, $335 at Zappos (over 40% off). Wouldn’t Hermione be proud of wearing these?

Of course, you can always sex it up French style:

Roger Vivier deep purple patent buckle pumps, $315 at Bluefly (40% off). Definitely something Fleur Delacour would don to seduce Harry!

Finally, if you can’t decide you want to be a witch or a wizard, here’s something appealing to your androgynous side:

Bottega Veneta wingtip oxfords in brown, purple and green leather, $464 at Bluefly (20% off).

See you all at Hogwarts, my friends!

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We were just thinking it’s been a while since we’ve had a good contest here at Shoeblog. So, the Shoebloggers put our heads together and came up with a new one. Here’s the challenge: Spot the designer shoe!

We’ve featured shoes in the past that look a lot like designer shoes, but are made by other companies and usually cost a fraction of the price of the designer versions. Check out our Designer Shoe Deja Vu posts for examples.

What we want you to do is identify which shoe in each pair is the designer one (bonus points for also identifying the designer). Here are the shoe pairs:

Post your reply in the thread for this post on the forums or leave a comment between now and August 10. AND–this is important–also pick a number between 1 and 500. This way, the contest isn’t automatically won by the first people to post, and we have a way to judge who’ll win the runner-up prizes, too.

And what are all these prizes, you might ask. Well, thanks to Fashionista Diaries , a new reality show coming out on SOAPnet, we’ve got some excellent prizes. I’m going to go off on a tangent for a minute here and tell you about this show.

It follows the real-life ups and downs of six 20-somethings as they pursue their dreams of making it in the glamorous, highly competitive world of the fashion, beauty, and publishing industries. The series launch sets up the six assistants having to collaborate to produce designer Charlotte Ronson’s fashion show and after party during New York Fall Fashion Week 2007, the fashion industry’s premiere event. Sounds delicious, doesn’t it? The show starts Wednesday, August 1 at 9pm and continues on Wednesday nights. Check it out.

And now back to the contest details. The grand prize (for the person who correctly identifies the highest number of the designer shoes AND has the closest number to our mystery digits) is a Fashionista Diaries beret and t-shirt plus $60 worth of Flirt cosmetics, seen here, baby, yeah!

5 runners up will also receive the Fashionista Diaries beret and tee. Check out the poster above. That beret is cool, no?

So, get to snooping. Get to guessing. And we’ll continue with our regularly scheduled shoe blogging.

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There comes a time every summer when flip-flops and Keds just don’t do it anymore. When a girl needs something baroque and glamorous and sunny to keep her head tall above the crowd.

For this precise reason, may I recommend these Charmone vegan platform half d’Orsay pumps:

I love the lime green details on the pump, made of microfiber faux leather over canvas. Better still, it’s 30% off–down to $223 from $319.

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