ModCloth
has some of the cutest shoes I’ve seen recently, and they all seem to have a bit of a unique spin, but they’re hard to get, because they sell out quickly. Some of the ones below were available when I looked at them yesterday, but are no longer available! Here’s to hoping they get more supplies in their stockroom, stat!

The buyers have great, funky mod taste, but not every girl could carry off these hipster pieces. If you’ve got a sense of irony and a bit of adventurous style, go for it.

Former drum majorettes need apply for a pair of these beauties. Hopefully they’ll get more in soon! I wouldn’t wear them with a structured military jacket, but instead something soft, like a drapey cream cashmere sweater or a chocolate velvet blazer and little gold earrings.

For the mod go-go girl, the Sly Flourish is $160. I see these witha really hot white mini or minidress.

The sleek city girl will cherish these beauties, which will take her from day to night in all kinds of weather. Please bring them back, ModCloth!

The Prima Donna high heels for $150 will steal your heart and the party.

The Skip a Beat Spectators for $100 would be great to walk around to while listening to The English Beat.

And who says brown leather and black suede clash? Bring them back, please!

Be of the times with these Zeitgeist Zebra Wedges for only $26.24!

Use the code NOW10DEC for 10 percent off your order of $10 or more.

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It’s started to rain buckets in San Francisco, and I’ll soon be flying back to New York to deal with equally lovely rainy weather there.

So where do my thoughts turn?

Nope, not to rain galoshes. You didn’t really think I was going to say something practical, did you?

It’s that time of the year, and my thoughts, like yours I’m sure, turn to the holiday party shoes I’ll be slipping and sliding around in for this year’s company holiday party, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s brunch, holiday wedding and other parties…

Now, normally, I’m a silver slipper kinda gal, but when it comes to the holidays, what sparkles like gold?

Like these Jessica Bennett Gemmas, pretty in a rose goldish-bronze, on sale for $71.47 with free overnight shipping from Endless.com:

Or the cleverly named and adorable Tulipano, by Claudia Ciuti, on sale for $170 at PiperLime.com:

Perhaps the Blin, by Nina, for $89 at Zappos.com?

I also have to show you the top, to show you how pretty the aerial view is!

Maybe you’re an edgier kinda gal, and you don’t want to wear delicate metallic strappy sandals with your dress. You scorn any fake blingy rhinestones on your clothes, so you certainly don’t want them on your shoes. You want something rocker, something almost punk, but still feminine and sexy, for your boyfriend’s rock concert on New Year’s Eve.

Look no further than Burberry’s Studded T-Bar Sandals, on sale for $417 at Net-a-Porter.com:

Whatever you’re doing this year, ring it in with style. I know I can count on you dear ShoeBlog readers to do that!

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In a bad economy, invest in some low-priced stock! There are various sales to be had on Louboutins. It almost makes me sad to see such beautiful shoes have to be marked down because of a lack of sales, but use it to your advantage!

These Louboutin Sigourney booties are almost Alien-like, but Ms. Weaver would certainly take no prisoners in them.  They are on sale at Barneys for $409, down from $1030.

The aptly named Louboutin Armadillo is $359, down from $895.

Scissor Girl is $539, originally $895.

Buy the Drapiday for $359, originally $895.

And if you can shell out $289 Somewhere will be yours.

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I am in love with the Bay Area spa Lavande, where you can not only get your tootsies pampered, but shop for pretty shoes to slip them into - brilliance! Lavande carries cheap to mid-level shoes, the likes of Bamboo, Kenneth Cole, Blowfish, Corso Como and Pink. They also carry jewelry and a few handbags, making it a pre-going out one stop shop.

The Lavande in Russian Hill has a Holiday Pedicure Special going on right now that is pretty amazing - a pedicure, brown sugar scrub and callus treatment for 25 recessionrific dollars. Lavande is the perfect holiday girls’ day out.

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Yves Saint Laurent knew a clean, classic silhouette and a clean, classic shoe. He knew funky too, of course, he just knew when to be simple.

I went to the YSL exhibit at the de Young Museum this week and nearly had to close my eyes as a brief respite from the overwhelming visual feast. This is the only stop in the U.S., so if you can, please go to the de Young for this fantastic exhibit.

Of course, I was on the lookout for the best shoes at the exhibit. This 1992 silk cocktail dress with its teaspot earrings and black and white crepe shoes was a stunner. I soaked in the negative space of the shoes as much as possible, getting close and letting myself feel sucked in by the white ovals. How can the whole outfit be so loud and yet so elegant, and the shoes be so quiet and yet so fun (and almost teasing, playful, funny)?

Now that over-the-knee boots are back, wouldn’t you like to just traipse around like a woodland hunter-sprite in these thigh boots?

Or how about going completely fearless in these fire engines, matched with a dark magenta, no less?

You could go for this eskimo look with the cordon-wrapped boots while you polish off that tuna nicoise with the ladies who lunch in the Arctic.

In 1965, Vivier’s Pilgrim pumps were paired with YSL’s Mondrian dresses. A fantastic match of geometry.

Most of the YSL shoes in the exhibit were black patent leather, and went incredibly sexily with the YSL tuxedo. (I wish I had photos of them). I love his masculine silhouettes and the strongly feminine, rounded square-toed black patent leather shoes he paired with them. Hamish Bowles said Yves had “impeccable understatement and startling modernity.” This is true, and is so evident in his scores of well-tailored black separates. But the man also put a woman in a matador outfit and heels, a jini in a lamp gold lame gown with leather and rhinestone pumps  - why couldn’t he have lived forever to have outfitted the 22nd century woman?

You changed the way women entering the workforce in the 60s dress by offering them pants. You paved the way for the existence of style rebels like Nan Kempner, who, when rejected from a restaurant for wearing one of your pantsuits, simply unzipped the pants and wore her tunic as a minidress.

“Nothing is so beautiful on a woman as the arms of a man she loves. But not all women are so blessed. Those women have me.”

Here’s to you, Yves, and your shoes, classic, refined and thoroughly modern at the same time.

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