Nordstroms Designer Event: Louboutins for 40% off

Nordstrom’s Designer Event begins TODAY.   For Louboutin collectors, that means select Louboutins from the spring and cruise 2009 collection are now on sale for 40% off the regular price.  For the best selection, you’ll want to place your order soon, especially since presales have been going on for a few days now.

To see which Louboutins are on sale (beyond the ones shown below), check out the Nordstrom’s Louboutin sales thread over on the shoe forums.  And if you see something you like but can’t make it to a Nordstroms, you can call Henry, our SA  (we are not affiliated in any way).  Just tell him ShoeBlog sent you and he’ll take good care of you.

SA: Henry Hamidifar  hirbod74@yahoo.com
cell: 804 -647-9801

ShoeBlog Interviews Christian Siriano!

A few weeks ago, Payless Shoes held a preview of their fall 2009 collection.  At the showroom, one of our very own shoebloggers, TwinkleToes, had a chance to interview Project Runway 4 winner Christian Siriano (swoon) about his Payless shoe collection.  We’re super excited to share the interview.  Stay tuned…

Christian Siriano for Payless: Blue Bootie from upcoming Fall 2009 collection

Stiletto Workout

This morning I was on my treadmill, sort of watching some enter-news-ment (not quite news and not quite entertainment)   program that featured a segment on something called Stiletto Workout.    Anyways, I missed part of it so I went to YouTube to see what I missed.   

YouTube is amazing. If I am unlucky enough to have an embarrassing moment caught on film, the LAST thing I would do is post it online so the world could see it.  Once was painful enough.  There is a clip of some girl, wearing heels,  running on her treadmill.  She fell out of her shoes and off the treadmill.  Anyways, I found a workout where a  woman and was lifting weights in 5 or 6 inch platforms, which any exercise physiologist will tell you is fairly dangerous and absolutely stupid because heels, especially hers, will move your center of gravity.  This woman was all over the place.   The only thing I could say was, “What the Hell?”   I am including this because it is the best example of what NOT to do.

Initially, I thought the stiletto workout was doing the whole workout in heels, but this isn’t the case.   They do their aerobic workout in regular athletic shoes, then the last 15 minutes they put the heels on and focus on strengthening the legs and calves as well as on balance and posture.  That makes sense.   Here is what the stiletto workout is about.

high heel workout

Now, if they find a way to help me keep my stiletto balance after I’ve had one lemon drop too many, I would be all over that.

I can’t believe I just said that.

Boot Hunt: R2 Devi

So, this message was left on my Facebook account by a desperate friend:

OK shoe queen…I want these shoes in a 7.5, 8, or 8.5.   I don’t care help me find them! 

 

 

 

R2 ‘Devi’ stock photos

To add insult to injury, she had apparently placed these in her Piperlime shopping cart - but for some reason waited until the morning to buy them…and by then, it was too late!

So far, I have had no luck finding these in anything other than a size 6, and she is a 7.5 but is willing to go up or down a half size.  In fact, I have actually only found a couple of retailers that are even still carrying this shoe (DSW, Famous Footwear & Shoes.com).

Please, if you see these online or in a retailer near you, let us know so that we can help her to find these retro ankle boots.

Sweet Shoes

Steps to the Cure is Maryland-based foundation dedicated to raising awareness of and funds for breast cancer research. Their annual fundraiser event often includes a fashion show, where the models who strut down the runway are not pre-teen waif, but breast cancer survivors. It is an evening of arts music and fun and the proceeds go to an excellent cause.

I was idly watching the Food Network a few nights ago, indulging in one of my many guilty pleasures, Ace of Cakes, which is a show about the amazing creations of Charm City Cakes, a specialty cake establishment in Baltimore, Maryland. The owner and head cakemaker, Duff Goldman, carves the most amazing cakes I have ever seen. I have seen him and his cake crew make the following impressing structures out of cake: a replica of Hogwart’s Castle, the girl from The Exorcist with head-spinning split-pea soup vomiting action, and a giant whisk.

In 2008, Charm City Cakes produced several very special cakes to be auctioned off at the Steps to the Cure event. Each cake would be carried during the fashion show by one of the models and attendees would bid on them. Have you guessed what form these cakes took?

They were shoes!

I apologize for the quality of several of these photos as they are actually photos of my television screen. Tivo would have definitely made this process easier.

Each Charm City Cake-er chose what form their show cake would make:

Chef Duff himself rocked on with a bitchin’ disco boot (which apparently won the highest bid of the night):

Perhaps more appetizing, if a little tongue in cheek, was this creation (it’s a little fuzzy):

Since this fabulous fashion show took place in 2008, the maker of this cake must have had some kind of amazing fashion ESP when he made this totally 80s high top:

This cake definitely should have been served with pizza and beer and a kicky musical number involving bowling shirts and dancing with really heavy balls.

Moving on to the Fashion portion of out evening, we have the Moroccan slipper that became a cake (I was too slow to catch the cake itself, so you will have to content yourselves with the shoe). This one gave the evening a bit of international flare (and what evening is complete without pieces of flare? Whether you like to talk about your flare or not…)

This cake was inspired by a specific existing shoe. Extra credit if you can tell me which one because due to my abject lack of Tivo and tragic inability to take photos and notes at the same time, the information has been lost to me *cue sad music* I bet anyone would love a “wedge” of that baby. Da dum schsssssss.

(edited to add: Thanks to commenter “yowza”! These shoes are based on the Christian Louboutin Sing Sing shoes seen here!)

And finally, the piece de resistance (in my world anyway). Cleverly quipping throughout the process–What flavir do you think my cake is? Strawberry Shoe-cake!–and painfully cutting out individual tiny sequins, one cake maker produced this awesome creation. I don’t know whether to eat it or wear it. Maybe I’ll just stare at it for awhile. So pretty, pretty….

This…

became this:

Love. Love. Love. Which one is your favorite?

If you want to learn more about Charm City Cakes, check out their website here or you can always watch Ace of Cakes on Ye Olde Food Network.

One final image to give you all perspective:

Now that’s good work for a good cause.