Is it just me, or have many designers forgotten the meaning of the phrase ‘Ready to wear’ during the Spring-Summer 2010 runway shows?  I know the runway is about drama, but more actual wear-ability in RTW lines would be nice to see.

Am I being too judgmental?

Perhaps I am in the minority here, but, I am willing to take the risk of being called  ‘unfashionable’ (or worse) when discussing the footwear that made it’s appearance at this week’s Louis Vuitton RTW runway show.

(Photos c/o style.com & nymag.com)

Called “terrific—modified clogs, moccasins and penny loafers, with kitten heels and feathery tufts” by Cathy Horyn at the New York times - I must, respectfully and vociferously, disagree!

We are, after all, speaking of these shoes:

And, painfully, all of these:

About the only thing I liked on the runway was the playful beaded take on the classic LV monogrammed bags (Which, if you take off that over-sized, fringe tassel, is kind of adorable):

Let me be clear on this.

I love that Marc Jacobs is unpretentious and playful with fashion.  Really, I do.

And, the idea of LV embracing MJ and adding a bit of play into their line is a nice idea - in theory.

But, please……..Let’s hope designers and fashion houses remember that we regular people need to do more than look at our fashion. We need to be able to wear it, too.

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Don’t you love Cannes?  Eleven days of style and red carpet fashion.  Oh Yeah, and films.  Here are just a few of the shoes seen on the red carpet.   

These shoes have been a hit with those who don’t want to be seen as playing it safe. The trouble is that they have been seen everywhere.  Variations of this shoe have been seen on Madonna, Victoria Beckham, Kerry Washington (twice)  and Isabelle Huppert.  

One of the reasons I love Cannes is because it truly has an international attitude.  The women don’t have that odd wax lip thing going on.  The mature women don’t look like they have a Kabuki mask on.  They have allowed themselves to age gracefully. Right now, Isabelle and Robin Wright Penn are my heros.

 I Love, Love, Love the way Isabelle made an odball dress work with these shoes.  Isabelle Huppert in Louis Vuitton Fall Collection 2009.

Kerry Washington at the Amend Charity Luncheon, Cannes 2009.  Kerry wore a gold version of this shoe.

Asia Argento in Armani Prive

Charlotte Gainsbourg wore some amazing Balenciaga Heels.  I have tried to get a large photo, but I am a techno dork, for which I appologize.

Sarah Marshall wore Sergio Rossi’s coil heel.  Do you love these or what??  I didn’t think they were available yet. 

Bae Doo-na from Air Dolls wore Steve Madden Gladiator Flats at a daytime press conference. She wore a gorgeous Doir dress later that night.  (I will include the dress just because she looks so great in it. )  I love a girl who goes from Steve Madden to Dior.

Ya gotta include Phoebe.

Most photos fom Red Carpet Fashion Awards

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Last night in New York was that always-delightful high point of every fashionista’s calendar o’ chic: the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala.  This year’s theme (in conjunction with the Costume Institute’s major annual exhibition of the same title)?  The Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion.

While last year’s Superhero show only produced a few interesting footwear choices, this year, there were beautiful shoes galore!

This may well be the year of Nicholas Kirkwood.  It certainly was on the carpet last night.  In my opinion, the most interesting designs were his, and they were on the feet of some of the top models in the industry.

Here’s Jessica Stam in the S9051B.

And here’s Karolina Kurkova so considerately displaying the S9049A for us.

Check out the official site for stockists near you and a peek at the GORGEOUS, uber-glam styles for the spring/summer 09 line.

While Kirkwood was my favorite on the carpet, there were plenty more style statements made through shoes.

Louboutins were everywhere… of course!

I’m not sure I’m feeling the giant bow look (seen here on Ivanka Trump with her Bow T pumps, which you can find at Joseph here), but I’ll tell you I do love her dress.

The so-called hourglass heels from Louis Vuitton that Twinkletoes wrote about so amusingly during Paris Fashion Week earlier this year were EVERYWHERE last night!  And I do mean everywhere.

Madonna wore a crazed thigh-high boot version.

Posh went with the ankle straps.

And Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester took the cake for Walking Disaster in the covered ankle bow-tie version.  I hasten to add that the shoes are BY FAR the best part of this outfit, and that Walking Disaster status is earned by that horrible piece of—I hate to even call it fashion—fabric she has covered herself in that is an awful combination of rejected upholstery, spangles, and some American Apparel red lamé leggings.  XOXO?  I think not.

But we can’t end on such a hideous note, can we?  No no.  I wouldn’t do that to you.

So instead, I will end with a beautiful shoe that I totally covet.  It’s Roger Vivier’s origami-inspired Kyte in a beautiful ivory/gold combination that matches Marisa’s dress perfectly.  Mwah!

All in all, a beautiful batch of shoes full of interesting heels and toes and uppers and materials.  It’s going to be a fun season, folks.  Can’t wait for it to unroll.

(Celeb photos courtesy of Celebutopia and StyleFrizz.)

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Do you ever talk to your shoes? I, for one, certainly talk to myself about my shoes on a regular basis. Maybe that sounds a little bit crazy, but I think they’re like plants. With a little love and care, maybe they will grow big and strong…or at least decide not to hurt me. Well, what if your shoes could add to the conversation?

A well-known (though not for anything particularly worthwhile) starlet recently wore these Louis Vuitton Spring 2009 sandals in public.

If any shoes were going to share some opinions on how they feel they go with the outfit you’re wearing, it would be these. Unfortunately, first they would have to stare you down with their beady little eyes. Then it would be voodoo curse time! In 2006, there was a terrible B movie called Tiki about a girl who moves to the city from the Hawaiian islands and all the popular girls pick on her. She exacts revenge by placing her spirit in an evil Voodoo doll that comes to like and tracks them down. So perhaps, the starlet here is on the hunt for the people who are thinking of not approving her first TV show in ages?

Who would wear these in public? Who is brave enough to brave voodoo curses and living tiki dolls? Who do you think it is ladies?

Click here to find out!

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Though the assorted Fashion Weeks for Fall 2009 have come and gone, I have decided to do one more designer specific post. Louis Vuitton (which is to say, Marc Jacobs and his specific brand of Frenchified crazy) showed at the very end of Paris Fashion Week. Initially, I was not going to post about the shoes, but then, like the Kylie Minogue song of the the same name, I just can’t get ‘em out of my head. And since misery loves company, here’s a bit of my obsession comin’ atcha.

The source of my obsession are the “hourglass heels” (see my fancy made up wordage?) on each shoe.

Exhibit A:

This pair in particular eez so Freaaaanch, non? With the velvet bow, red and black motif, beads, and a bit of sparkle, that there is a can-can dancer reincarnated as a shoe. But I digress. So often, the heels that designers stick on shoes are pure shock value all the way. Often, it’s fabulous. Don’t stop, designers! You would leave we shoebloggers with significantly less to write about. However, here is an unusual heel on an awesome shoe that seems like it would help rather than hurt the wearer. I mean just look at it. Increased groundage-to-heel ratio = more practical shoe. And that’s jut a mathematical fact.

The other thing I think is awesome about these is this entire power play scenario that I developed in my head where you got bigger beads on your hourglass shoe if you were a more “popular” model. Like if a model books a big job, she gets to trade up her bead size or something. It’s like in middle school, where the popular girls had progressively fancier and fancier friendship bracelets. But that’s clearly just in my head OR IS IT? Look here:

HER BEADS ARE BIGGER THAN MINE!

Sheesh. Now I’m not digressing, I’m regressing.

This delightful motif also showed in the super dramatic thigh-high boots that Marc showed. Some were metallic, some had full-on patent leather lace up (dominatrix whip sold separately). Here are some more photos.

I WANT the white ones more than I want to breathe. OK, that’s a smidgen of an overstatement. So do these babies get you guys all choked up inside the way they do me? Or have I finally gone off the deep end. (Mind you, positive answers to both questions will be accepted.)

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