At least once a month, and sometimes more frequently than that, I find a shoe that makes me feel like an infatuated teenager with a secret crush.

So, please meet my current crush, one that made my heart beat just a little faster when I stumbled upon it:

Jean Paul Gaultier’s houndstooth T-strap pump.

Can you tell that I’m an absolute sucker for menswear inspired styles?

What do I love?

• The Houndstooth print.
• The Wingtip/spectator styling
• The Retro T-strap.
• The Goth/punk/industrial feel of the over-sized buckle strap.
• The Zig-zag topstitching contrast.

What’s not to love?

Okay, perhaps the price-tag: $665 at Shopbop; this is not particularly expensive for a high-end designer shoe. It is, however far beyond the normal budgetary allowances of this Shoeblogger. 

Even so, I’m really feeling the love for this baby. How about you?

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 Or Elegandom, if you want. Whatever! Here’s Elie Saab (left) and Valentino (right):

Gray, elegant, shiny, no doubt gorgeous. But also a little…bored. Kinda…done. Don’t get me wrong, I would admire these shoes on someone else (not on myself, I couldn’t walk in these)–but I probably wouldn’t call them revolutionary. But yeah, yeah, they’re nice.

The feeling of recycled intensifies with the Jean-Paul Gaultier collection: sort of sassy, but a sass that has been done before and we know too well: shiny croc prints and buckles, ribbon-tied open-toed oxfords, neon-tights with strappy sandals:

Not terrible, no, noooo. But neither beautiful nor exciting, in my opinion.  I think I’ll wait this round. Next, please!

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Jean Paul Gaultier created the beautiful gown worn by Marion Cotillard at the Oscars, taking his inspiration from the natural world, more specifically from fish scales. This past week in Paris, however, he might have overdone a little the animal-inspiration. For once, I can’t decide whether these boots are overkill (as some fashion critics labeled his show) or… roadkill:

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It was certainly fun to watch the nautically inspired Gaultier show, a kind of Ariel-meets-Popeye (but you know, in a couture-sort of way). The shoes were certainly glamorous–shiny, pretty, and impossibly high stilettos:

But the real news to me was what was happening north of the ankles. Why, is that a tattoo I spy there?

Well, I believe it is!

…although this one below looks more like a skin disease:

So: real or fake tattoos, imprinted on your stockings on your skins–that’s what hottt in mermaid land. I’ll debate it come spring when it gets warm enough for me to wear a skirt again.

My favorite stockings by far, however, were the ones that came with their own jingle. I pondered for a moment the effect of my entrance to a party dressed in these:  

They can’t be too comfortable to sit down in, but hot damn it, they’re spectacular!

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