Emilio Pucci is known for playing with vivid colors and vibrant, abstract prints on his footwear designs.

And while I admittedly love color in my footwear choices,  my preferences tend more toward bright, single-color styles, two-tone color-blocking, and feminine florals than the swirling, vibrant color abstracts that are typical of many Pucci’s offerings. These prints tend to remind me of Mondrian - which inevitably leads me to visualize to opening sequences to such shows as the Brady bunch and the Partridge Family; an unfortunate set of programmed associations which clearly identify me as a child of the 70’s.

I know.

*wince*

But, in spite of all of this, here two Pucci styles that make me exclaim, “how delicious are these?”

Emilio Pucci “79492″ leather and suede boot ($994):

And, Pucci “794943″ suede and patent peep-toe webbed-heel pump ($774) @ Zappos):

I’m definitely loving the colorful, acrylic?, webbed, insert on these lovelies.

Is there that expected Pucci hint of modern abstract patterning? Yes, but just a hint.

There’s just enough color here; it’s as if your shoes have a little secret that only flashes out when viewed at precisely the right angle.

This is the type of shoe that causes the wearer walk as though she has some dark and mysterious secret that you can’t quite put your finger on….

And, which one of us wouldn’t want to be that girl, from time to time?

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The shows just keep on coming, and the shoes just keep on making statements.

The newest crop of designer shows in Milan includes some of the heavy hitters of the fashion world (Dolce&Gabbana, Pucci, Versace, and Fendi among others).

And what have they brought us?

Well, Dolce&Gabbana have won my award for best use of ”arts and crafts” styling with several variations on this brocading technique that I love.

They’ve also done a lot of patent leather snakeskin, which I’m less nuts about.

Pucci has brought out more designs with that gimp-like robe element.  I imagine we’ll be seeing a fair amount of that come Spring 2008 shoes, since it’s showing up in lots of places on the runways.  Can’t say I love that look overall, but I do love these shoes!  Candy colored Pucci deliciosity!

Versace continues with the glam/luxe a-little-over-the-top style they’re known for.  My fave shoe from their show?  This one in a pretty pretty kelly green.

Fendi seems to have put all of their models in variations on this shoe, which I almost love, but then just at the last minute, my love veers off into great disgust.  So close, yet so far.

But at least this model’s feel look like they might be escaping the runway mostly unscathed.  Unlike some of the other girls’ feet we’ve seen on the catwalks.

And speaking of models’ feet in danger, Dsquared wins my award for Worst Fitting Shoe on the Runway.

It’s a shame, because the shoe itself is quite lovely to look at.  But that poor model looks like she’s a second away from falling completely out of that shoe.  Her heel’s going to slip down that steep slope of an arch and her toes are going to slide of that front platform (look they’re already halfway there) and she’s going to fall on her face!

But Dsquared is also in my bad books for this not-so-sexy accessory.

 OK, sure, a lot of models smoke.  That doesn’t make it any better for them.  And putting it up on the runway certainly doesn’t encourage young girls to smoke in order to be sexy, does it?  No!  Of course not!  Sort of ironic timing, since America’s Next Top Model (for my money, the best crappy reality show out there) just aired an ep where they did ”before and after” shots about the effects of smoking and then declared the season a non-smoking one.  Oh, Tyra.  What a daring and innovative statement you make that no one has made before you.

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I’m digging the trend for booties for fall.  I’m happily hunting for a pair I like to incorporate into my shoe collection, and if I had the money for it, these shiny Pucci black and gold numbers would be in my closet in the wink of an eye and the click of a mouse.

I love the scalloped edge and the gold trip and the gold soles and… well everything.  The heel’s a bit high for me, but at just over 3 inches (80mm), it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility for my shoe wearing tastes.  However, at $795, they’re well out of reach.  Dammit!

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I’m generally not much for "classic" when it comes to shoe styling. I like my shoes to have something a little different about them. Could be an interesting heel shape or a unique strap design or an out-of-the-ordinary material or pattern. Take a basic shoe idea (say, a kitten heel d’orsay peep toe pump with an ankle strap), and do it in black leather… I’m probably not interested. But swap the black leather for a graphic print satin, and all of a sudden I’m covetous like woah. Like the Nine West Sabyne.

This pair is suddenly completely to die for in my book. So, I thought I’d go hunting around for other graphically interesting shoes. They’re so evocative of very specific types of people and places.

These Franco Sarto Avanti’s are like the reverse of an assignment from a 2D design class I took in college where we had to make an eye-catching design using only a white background and a single black dot.

A few assignments later, as we worked on more techniques, we were able to use more combinations of black and white and dots in different sizes and shapes. Rather like these Bandolino Shira peep-toes.

Of course, no survey of graphic shoes is complete without the master of the graphic print, Emilio Pucci. These wedges with the color block heel design make me think of groovy 70s decor with round lamp shades and plush shag carpeting.

And these t-strap sandals belong on the feet of a European socialite at a chic soiree for the creme de la creme of high society.

With graphic print shoes, you never get just a basic. There’s always some story your imagination can concoct about them. And that’s why I love em.

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The great Manolo the Shoeblogger posts about Pucci shoes every once in a while, with the heading, "Pucci makes the smiles!" I bet, however, that he would agree these overly sweet, overly-patterned and overly-saturated heels from Pucci make those smiles to melt tragically into a sugary-vanilla-honey-induced diabetic coma.

Of course, you can always get the approach that these are so tacky they’re truly fabulous and scour the imagination (whatever’s left of it when you recover from that sugar coma) for opportunities to wear them. Here’s one: part of an outfit you wear at the first Antromeda 5-Earth interplanetary reception, so as not to to be outdone by all those wacky alien space

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