Well, Averyl Oates (buying director for Harvey Nichols) may think the Dries van Noten shoes were all that, but I can’t say as I agree.

This is a designer who’s previously brought us such glorious pattern and texture combinations as the Spring 2009 line and the likewise-stylish Fall 2008 line.

But for Fall 2009, I have to say my high hopes were disappointed.  Pattern, yes.  But monochromatic and not terribly interesting.  Texture, sure, but only with a repeated python print (yawn… I’m not down with all the snake usage) and some rather boring brown leathers and… well… see and judge for yourselves.

Sure, that middle shoe is a beaut, but it’s a little snoreish given that it’s coming from Dries.

All right, as Averyl notes, the python soles is a cool idea.

But that doesn’t save this from being a bland collection from a designer about whom I never expected to use such a word.

I will, however, completely and totally agree with Averyl’s opinion on the Givenchy shoes.  What a fanciful pile of footwear!  Look!

I’m surprised we haven’t already seen Posh out and about in that last pair.

Picking up the Dries van Noten slack, it should be noted, was Emanuel Ungaro, where Esteban Cortazar seemed to take just the right mix of inspiration from the Dries Fall ‘08 line and the Cynthia Steffe Fall ‘09 line I was raving about a few weeks ago.  Who wouldn’t want to hit the town in these fun party shoes?

And finally for today’s fashion week report, I can’t leave without making mention of Costume National, where the Rick Owens blousy boots saw their cousins on parade and these gorgeous and funky MaryJanes clip-clopped down the catwalk to stylishly win my heart.

(images from Elle.com and Style.com)

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Ok, so my title is a bit over the top, but I’d rather perish than live an existence without shoe shopping. I may have cut down on my clothes shopping, but shoe shopping is a bare essential! I’ll be wearing a potato sack in Great Depression 2.0, but my shoes will gleam like a brand new shiny silver nickel, even if I have to cover Keds with aluminum foil or spray paint them silver!

In San Francisco, Gimme Shoes is one of my new favorite stores. They just have fantastic taste, rejecting vulgarity in favor of classic, classy styles. The lovely designer Louisa Parris told me she got some of her runway shoes for the Gen Art Fresh Faces in Fashion event from Gimme, and after several visits, I can see why. I stopped by the Gimme in Hayes Valley and saw this irresistible Belle by Sigerson Morrison origami flat and Repetto boot.

They are having a winter sale online where you can find the delicious likes of Loeffler Randall, Dries Van Noten, Chie Mihara, 3.1 Philip Lim and Yohji Yamamoto. Check it out here.

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Shoeblog’s love for Dries Van Noten has been well documented.

The spring 2009 Dries shoes are beauts, and no mistake.

Love those slightly curving heels!  Adore the Dries trademark combination of patterns and materials.

But, dare I say it?  Does this look a little tame for this normally exuberant line?  I mean, they’re gorgeous, no doubt, and a lot better than some of the things we’ve seen down the Parisian catwalks (just wait for the upcoming post about Givenchy), but when I think Dries, I think COLOR COLOR COLOR!!  And this… well… this just didn’t have it.

Since there’s no Shoes of Project Runway post this week (long evening gowns make it damn near impossible to figure out what shoes those models have on), and in fact, since there will probably be no more Shoes of Project Runway posts for season 5 (since we’re off to Bryant Park next), I will sum up my feelings to this Dries Van Noten collection with a typical Nina Garcia response.

Dries, I just wish we could have seen more from you.

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New York Fashion Week has come and gone for another year (though we still have a few more things to say in this corner of the internet… stay tuned), and before we get into the London shows, I’m jumping in with a Runway-to-Real-Life shoe story.

I recently encountered a co-worker whose fashion is top-notch.  Clothes-wise, jewelry-wise, bags-wise, and of course, shoes-wise.

First off, there are these flats from Angelo Figus (a designer who was new to me).  They are both adorable and edgy at once: a combination not easy to come by.

See… adorable.  But wait for it…

That’s the bottom.  See that metallic edginess?  Need a close-up?

Yep… it’s got a cloven metal plate on the heel.  That is my kind of shoe.

But this style maven’s real passion when it comes to footwear is Dries van Noten.  Dries, the love of Shoesense’s heart.

Take note of that second link there.  Take particular note of the second picture in that post.  Because that’s the pretty baby I giddily got try on when Ms. Fashion Forward brought them in to work.

Now, those shoes are MUCH higher than anything I’d wear myself, but I have to say that when I put them on, they were startlingly comfortable for how high and thin that heel is.  But the heel’s smartly located more sturdily underneath the center of your heel, and there’s a bit of hidden padded platforming under the ball of your foot that lifts it up just a bit.  And, of course, those shoes are gorgeous, which never hurts.

But I’m much more of a flats kind of girl, so the white ones (which are also Dries) really sucked me in.  You can’t see it from here, but the crinkly flaking look is actually because these shoes are made out of a malleable metallic material that I’d never seen before.  They have a beautiful sheen to them and are just interesting enough texture-wise that they keep from being too girly.

So there you have it, shoe fans.  A non-runway post that, come to think of it, did actually refer to the runway.  But it was last year’s runway and this year’s actually purchasable shoes.  That counts, doesn’t it?

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After a prolonged, lustful flirtation, I finally bit the bullet and bought these:

They’re Dries van Noten silver booties (yes, they do look gold, a pale platinum-gold in person, really), with a cutout at the intersection of the cross-straps, which tie in the back, and a sturdy, chunky stacked leather heel. I got them at Head Start Shoes, almost 70% off: they were $189, down from $575 (original price). This was the last pair and it happened to be in my size, so you see how I had to get them. The dramatic price cut, their glamor, and my need to reward myself after I got good news about my big-bad-ass-project (it passed muster! yay!) converged on a beautiful spring day to grab these while I still could.

I’m not gonna lie to you, I’ve become so unaccustomed to walking in anything higher than 1, 1.5 inches tall, that these were a challenge. The heel is chunky, true, but it’s also almost 3 inch high, and the sole is thick but hard. The balls of my feet got quite a workout on the streets of Philly yesterday, but I couldn’t care less: the weather was gorgeous, my project was basically good, and I had silver-gold boots on my feet. Life was fabulous!

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