One of my favorite shoe trends for fall was the studded shoe. More specifically, I coveted Gucci’s Babouska shoe line. And now, Gucci, bless their hearts, is in the spirit of giving us their first markdown of the fall 2008 collection. The Babouska is now 40% off, which is still rather pricey but perhaps there will be further reductions by Christmas if I focus on being nice and not naughty.
Black Friday is almost upon us. We all know this, and I am both afraid and rejoicing. I have some younger cousins and friends of the family I need to get presents for, and I don’t have the money to go for broke this year (especially with lots of cousins), because I’m already there. Here are some sites to try if you’re on a budget:
At Heels.com, you’ll save $10 on every shoe plus use HEELQ4AFF to save an additional $15 off purchases of $125.
Over at ColeHaan, you can save 30% off your entire purchase from now until November 30th using code CHSALE30.
Outlet shopping? SierraTradingPost will enjoy 15% off their order with promo code ABACKCYBER8.
Overstock and Amazon have surprisingly good shoe deals for sites where the span of goods is so huge. If you’re looking for supercheap, cute presents for nieces, try the brand Adi on Overstock. And you know, I don’t know if I can do it anymore (yes, Grandma over here realizes too much leopard print and too many bows make her look vaguely Rocky-Horror-meets-GoGo-from-Kill-Bill), but if your niece is wild and cute enough to rock Betsey Johnson well, you could send her to Amazon’s Friday Sale. (But then, you might want to keep a pair of those leopard print pumps in the back of your closet for your wild nights in!!)
And this is your chance to get something priced for a teenager for yourself! Maybe I’ll just be getting a pair of $30 heels online, but it’s nice to treat yourself. I prefer YSL, but if it’s Sigerson Morrison for Target’s really cute electric blue booties or jeweled flats this year, that’s more than fantastic. I actually like it when someone recognizes something I have as being Awesome, Creative, Young Designer for Target, because it’s usually a hard working career gal with fun style! I can’t tell you how many times in New York a coworker or stranger has come up to me in posh Midtown and said, “Is that Behnaz Sarafpour/Proenza Schouler/Erin Fetherston for Target?” Here are a couple of my Sigerson Morrison for Target faves for you and the gals in your life:
I also highly recommend Target’s Sonia Kashuk makeup as presents for girls in your life, because they are informative, from How To Make a Smokey Eye to Brow Arch Kit, and it’s some of the best quality, low price point makeup I’ve ever gotten. Bourjois and Rimmel are two other makeup companies that not every single one of her suburban mall-dwelling girlfriends will have, though Bourjois is carried at Sephora.
Mariana by Golc is another pretty, reasonable line that suits younger women, not too young and flashy but not old or matronly at all!
And if you prefer to get your kicks, literally, in person, perhaps your wallet will like the outlets, which all seem to be having MASSIVE SALES that start early, many on Thursday night. Don’t playa-hate on those outlets, New Yorkers, just get there with a little help from your friends with cars or take that famous Port Authority bus!
Thanksgiving is upon us. And, as the house slowly fills with the unmistakable and homey aromas of sage and rosemary roast turkey, I wanted to stop for a moment to reflect on the contribution made by Roger Vivier that is most commonly referred to as the Pilgrim Pump.
Yes, this is the unavoidable Thanksgiving post. So, let’s chat about the Pilgrim Shoe.
Not This Shoe:
But This Shoe:
So, here’s to Roger Vivier. While well-known for his revival* of the stiletto n the 1950’s - particularly during Hollywood’s ‘Golden Years’ (Think Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes), Mr. Vivier is also well-remembered for the classic buckled-vamp ‘Pilgrim Shoe’.
Personally, I love the black pump with the contrasting red buckle. The hint of color-blocking adds just the right amount of sass to an otherwise conservative style.
Of course, those of you who love to celebrity-watch may recognize the strappy buckles sandals; Shoebunny has all the details on just which celebrity wore these here.
The ‘eye-candy’ styles shown are all currently available at the styledrops.com Roger Vivier Corner; Prices range from $739 to $989 for pictured styles.
For those interested in more historical information on Vivier, several additional articles and references are available.
*Credit to graymnce for editorial correction on the stiletto article.
In the high school pantheon of designers, Dr. Chanel is the in-control principal, Mr. Lagerfeld is the mysterious superintendent, Ms. Von Furstenberg is the wise favorite teacher, Donatella is the bad girl playing hooky, Ralph is the classic quarterback, Marc is the prom queen, Kate and Laura Mulleavy are the strange but cool girls in art class, Stella is the earnest, slightly annoying activist … and then who’s that freak sitting there alone in the corner?
Yeah, the shy, fey, emaciated weirdo wearing some sort of Edward Scissorhands punk-goth getup that makes Lagerfeld look like a sweet old biddy in lacy doilies. The one kindly but intently ignoring Ms. Von Furstenberg’s lectures, making some sort of very intense origami construction with the plastic from his binder, a sheet of black tire rubber from the high school parking lot, a razor and a match.
That nobody there’s Gareth Pugh, and you’ll know him now by the 2008 ANDAM Award blinding you from his ratty black tee.
Revenge against popular culture is sweet, and a dish best served cold. The Central Saint Martins designer is not malicious and in fact comes across as sweet and shy, but sometimes you get the feeling that ole Gareth is playing a joke on all of us, an extended prank that he’s seeing how long it will take us all to get.
Almost everything Gareth makes could be a circus tent/vent disaster on black-and-white platforms. Witness below a piece I love but almost any other designer would probably mess up royally:
Gareth can also do sexy, in his own strange way:
The saving grace from his pieces of weirdness are that they’re done so incredibly well; the vents are so fantastically, precisely done, the silhouettes are so bizarre and masculine a la Storm Trooper chest shield/body armor, the long Elizabethan ruffs are so architecturally stable, and then he goes and says things like: “It’s kind of that essence of beauty, that duality… A flower looks the most amazing just before it’s about to die.” In Hint Magazine in 2005, he was quoted as saying that his skirts were “about the struggle between lightness and darkness, like Nancy Kerrigan versus Tonya Harding.”
How could you not love a designer who says something like that? But in this case, the bite of reality is stronger than the bark of mythos, and Gareth really follows through on what he says.
Let’s take a closer look at a couple samples from Gareth’s first shoe collection.
Simple, but perfect. And the accentuation on the appropriate legwear (black and white tights that are a fluid part of the shoe, nearly indistinguishable) and makeup (black solid lashes that are white on the sides) definitely reinforces the fact that a shoe can be subtle in color but still shout its presence from the rooftops if you play it right. It makes me think of Chanel’s classic black shoes with white cap toes, worn with black tights, so that the whole leg was black except for a tippy-toe of white peekaboo. Designers are saying, let’s think beyond our shoes to the perfect legwear for each pair.
The most fantastic thing about these shoes is that they are black and chunky in the back, warping into a whole other shoe when you see them from that angle, complemented by tights that are black in the back. It’s all about perception with Gareth’s work, shading and depth and angles and proportion. Storm Troopers plunging into a visual wrinkle in time and space.
But Gareth, I believe we can see weirder, more whimsical, more fantastic, both darker and lighter in shoes from you. And yes, that’s a challenge from an ardent fan.
It seems like each department store is trying to one up each other - first Saks went on sale early and to be able to compete, others followed suit. The result is that we can now participate in Black Friday sales on Black Tuesday. And now that we have the internet for reference, we can enjoy shopping without the hassles of standing in line at the stores.
Today, I was able to get my hands on the salon shoes lookbook from Nordstroms. The shoes on sale will have their sale prices listed next to them and are officially on sale starting today (11/25). Here’s a sampling of what is currently available. And for the complete list, I will direct you to the shoe forums. The designers on sale include: Chanel, Louboutin, Jimmy Choo, Manolo Blahnik, Dior, Gucci, YSL, Valentino, Stella McCartney, and Lanvin. Let me know if this is useful to you - it took a while to format the pictures but if it is a good reference for at least one person, than my work has been justified.
For those interested in making a purchase, please call Henry at the Salon Shoes in Nordstroms Houston Galleria and tell him ShoeBlog sent you. His number is (832)201-2700 ext 1600 and he will ship the shoes to you for free.
Piperlime
Recent Comments