SS12 Fashion Week Footwear: Spotlight on Unique for Topshop

Yesterday was the Unique for Topshop show in London, and in case you couldn’t tell from these two detail shots of some of the outfits and their motifs and accessories, the theme was EGYPT EGYPT EGYPT!!!

Get it?!  EGYPT!!

With the gold and the collar necklaces and just in case you still didn’t get it, massive images of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra all over the place.

Frankly, I found the clothes tacky and like the worst of what Topshop has to offer trendy young London hipsters, as opposed to the high end of the international label, which is what the Unique collection was supposed to be.

However, we’re here to talk shoes, right?  And shoes is what this collection did best.  They did a whole line of platform flats with fun lacing and ankle straps and gold and wing details that, when divorced from the clothing emphasizing the same things, are pretty freakin’ awesome.  Plus, the gold toenail polish is a nice touch, too.

And then there were the heels.  You can’t see the inclusion of tortoise shell patterning on the platforms above (it’s a thin layer between the gold and the color of the platform), but there’s a nice chunk of it on the heel on the left below.  I love the wing details on the back of the shoe (if you want your own winged sandals without waiting for next Spring, you could follow Trainingheels’ advice and pick up Rachel Comey’s red wedges) and the notched heel that’s also on the beige shoes at the right, where the gold heel comes across as just the right amount of bling without being garish.

So my advice would be skip all the Topshop Unique clothes and keep your funds for the footwear.

SS12 Fashion Week Footwear Trend Alert: Transparency

The manic Fashion Week energy has moved on away from New York City, but that only means it’s off across the Pond from Big Apple to Big Smoke.  London Fashion Week is well under way, and we’re seeing some of the same trends at Somerset House that New York brought us at Lincoln Center.

For example, that transparency thing that I mentioned with the uber uncomfy Carolina Herrera’s posted here or the Marchesa and Narciso Rodriguez shoes over here?

Well, I’m calling it.  Add it to the list of trends to keep an eye out for come Spring.

See-through footwear showed up through the rest of NYFW in shows like 3.1 Phillip Lim (left and center) and Chado Ralph Rucci (right).

Now, if you ask me, those are all three of them painful looking.  Talk about edges of straps digging into your foot.  And despite that last show being an awfully good attempt at a modern day Cinderella slipper, it’s nothing I’d want to be wearing to the ball to meet Prince Charming.  Hell, after a night of dancing in those, I’d be ripping ‘em both off and tossing ‘em at Prince-y, just to get them off my feet.

To round out the New York’s see-through bounty, the Marc Jacobs show flirted with transparent shoes, including these booties, which fill me, realist that I am, with dreadful imaginings of how rank and sweaty and stinky they would be after a day of wearing them.

And then we went to London!

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Rachel Comey’s Red Wings of Desire

Aren’t they lovely?

From the winged shape to the fun, curved heel to the moderate platform, Rachel Comey has done a great job here. The stitching is fun too.

Maybe the only thing I would do here is change the color of the platform. I just don’t feel like the light-wood color is doing so much for the red.

While a black platform would probably overwhelm the red, I would make this more of a warm wood color, almost like the background in this photo.

Have fun flying around like Hermes in these!

Rachel Comey Firewing Clogs, $428, Anthropologie.com

Manolo in Two Shades of Purple

I’ve always liked a ribbon shoe. My favorite was a black shoe very similar to this, that tied with a black velvet ribbon.

So I’m happy to see a similar shoe in purple. And not just that, but if you look closely, in two shades of purple!

The heel is very thin, so this is going to be a little rickety. But for that color, it might all be worth sacrificing…

I believe this beauty was called the Adrianna.

Manolo Purple Ribbon Pump, $275, Manolo boutique.

Spring 2012 Runway: Alexander Wang Shoes

I know that Jitterbugbaby has been doing most of the Spring 2012 runway overviews thus far. And I also realize that Shomore already gave us a peak at Alexander Wang’s spring shoes when she highlighted the white-on-white trend for Spring 2012. But, I felt it was my duty to single out Alexander Wang’s 2012 spring runway for a second peek.

Why?

Simply put, I must have share these shoes:

Holy aquamarine, Batman!

Alexander Wang certainly knows more than a thing or two about what makes shoes (and the gals who wear them) tick.

I am officially crushing on the stunning color of these. That, added to the texture and unexpected-yet-wildly-sexy pointed-toe has me in a state of near-swoon.  Oh and that little loop on the back – love it.  This whole shoe is crying out to me.

Please, please, please …. let these appear for online purchase come spring of 2012.  This gal who lives 3 hours from the closest Saks or Nordstrom will be eternally grateful.

That is all.

Note: Runway photos via Style.com