Valentino Haute Couture 2009

Valentino designers Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri were former accessory designers.  Accessory designers tend to pay attention to the smallest of details because their creation is so much smaller than the overall outfit.  The attention to the smallest of details showed in this line.

How cute are they!  Love her dress.  Want to touch his jacket.

The dresses were elegant, the details on the shoes were wonderful.  I fully expect to see these on red carpets next year.

Here’s the dress.

Here’s the shoe.  Do you love it or what?!

More of the shoes that walked the Valentino runway. 

Usually with Couture, one maybe two different pairs are introduced.  Six or seven distinctly different pair shoes were offered.   I can’t wait to see Penelope Cruz wearing Valentino shoes.

Spring 2009 Shoes Trends: A Rainbow of Color

While economic events have been a bit dreary over the past six months or so, it’s nice to see that we won’t have to worry about being stuck with spring shoe options that are either conservative or gloomy.  

So, what am I seeing at online retailers as well as in every brick-and-mortar store with a shoe section?

Color.

What kind of color? From Payless to Macy’s to Saks, just about every primary, prism-based color is on tempting display.

So, if you like bold colors, then this is the season for you.

Here are some (mostly) high-end highlights.

Red:

Christian Louboutin ‘Madame Claude’ D’orsay Pumps $795 at Saks.com

Valentino ‘Mena’ Day Wear Pumps $695 at Saks.com

BCBGMaxazria Patent and Rafia* Sandals $250 at Saks.com

Orange:

Dior ‘Klimt’ T-strap Sandal $570 at Saks.com

Miu Miu patent leather wedges $570 at Net-a-porter

Yellow:

Christian Louboutin Platform pumps $736 at Saks.com

Brian Atwood ‘Riva’ patent sandals $725 at Net-a-porter

Green:

Roberto Cavalli satin basketweave sandals $915 at Net-a-porter

Brian Atwood Suede Sandals $710 at Saks.com

Blue:

Christian Louboutin ‘New Simple’ pumps $675 at Saks.com

Oscar de la Renta V-Pieced open-toe platform pumps $755 at Saks.com 

Loeffler Randal ‘Graphic’ wood platform sandal $575 at Saks.com

Violet:

Miu Miu ‘Sandali’ cork* sandals $585 at Saks.com

Miu Miu suede pumps $495 at Saks.com

Costume National slingback flats $560 at Saks.com

What if you want to play with the whole rainbow instead of just choosing by the individual color?  Well, multi-hued styles are available too. Heck, many of us are just starting to experience 2009′s first rainy, spring-time weather; it’s as good a reason as any to bring your own rainbow to the party.

Nine West ‘Mudpie’ bamboo*-wrapped slide $88.95 at Endless.com

T.U.K Rainbow Heart Strap Heel $60.50 at Zappos.com

Jimmy Choo Open-Toe Sandals $825 at Saks.com

Brian Atwood ‘Margie’ rainbow sandals $565 at Saks.com

Sergio Rossi patchwork knee-high boots $1500 at Net-a-porter

Here’s to a colorful and optimistic spring.

* See, you really can’t get away from cork & rafia this year. 

Shoe Trends for Winter

Do you know what new trend in shoes fascinates me? It’s the open-toed heel over tights and/or socks look. It was all over fashion week and it is certainly prevalent on the streets of New York.

Let me tell you a story.

Many years ago, when I was young and carefree, I attended a rather uptight, brick-walled college just outside of Boston. The students of said college were rather….tighty-laced. OK, not all of them. No stereotype works for everybody, but some were. At any rate, I’ve always had my own ideas about fashion and adapted them to suit me. I rarely take things like “weather” and “comfort” into account, but when you go from California to Boston and winter hits you hard, you kinda have to adjust just a little. That first winter at school, I decided that the logical way to deal with winter would be to pair my open-toed shoes with tights and thereby avoid having to spend either of the two pennies I had to rub together on new dressy shoes (broke college students of the world….HOLLLLLAH!). I could also combat the frosbite that was threatening my toes this way. Good compromise, yes? The resounding answer, in the late 90s, was a resounding NO. I eventually caved to peer pressure and horded my work-study money for new shoes, but I was not a happy camper.

The modern equivalent shoe from my sad little story is a hell of a lot better than my attempt at schoolgirl pumps with tights. This look works much better with the modern bootie or multi-strapped sandal and the wide variety of fully-opaque tights that are now available. (In my day, the opaque tights were wore by 6-year-old ballerinas. I had to make do with dark pantyhose. Eek).

Here is one of my favorite looks from fashion week.

I totally guerrilla shot this photo. I am pretty sure she is an editor, what with the whole fashion-forward thing. See the thing socks OVER the skinny jeans INSIDE the open-toed booties. Frankly, I think this whole outfit is cute, but it’s the footwear that makes it. To be honest with you guys, when I first saw open-toed boots and booties, I thought they were the worlds dumbest invention. Honestly, if it’s cold enough to wear boots, it is probably too cold to expose your little piggies to the elements, but this compromise make anything possible.

Another fav was a look I already mentioned to you guys in my earlier post about Band of Outsiders and their collaboration with Loubotin. But to refresh the memory, here is another photo.

The lace-ups look great with the tights. The deliberate contrasting toe works really well with the look here.

I am including this last example just because the shoes are very cool. I know we saw them on the runways last year, but I can’t remember where. At any rate, I think the burnt yellow and purple here works well together. It’s a less-trendy look but still good. Killer heels too.

I guerilla shot another girl in an airport wearing the wide strappy white sandals over black tights. The photo was TERRIBLE, but the look was AWESEOME, so you will have to use your imaginations.

Picture THESE shoes (in white) crossed with black tights and a minidress. The look was awesome!

If you like these shoes, by the by, they are available on Net-a-Porter for $870, courtesy of Bottega Veneta.

I feel that this trend is evolving. I think it actually started out last year on the Spring 2008 runways. I was looking for good examples online and came across this melange from PeoplesChronicle.com.

Despite having admitted that I have done it myself back in the day, I am still not a big fan of the pantyhose with open-toed shoe look. In life, it may save you from frostbite, but on a runway, it’s just lazy. For shame Calvin Klein, Burberry Prorsum, Donna Karan, and Valentino! (photos from those runways.)

What do you think? Are socks with sandals OK in your book?

Paris Couture Footwear from the Spring 2009 Shows

It is that time again, yes.  Paris fashion week for the couture labels.  Oo la la.

It wasn’t my favorite collection this time around.  A little on the snoozy side.  Couture is where you can really go for it, you know?  And these… well, mostly not so much with the going for it.

Armani Privé did some variations on this d’Orsay pump.

I’m not terribly impressed.  It’s nice and all, but a little *yawn* for a couture show.

Though, this combo of dress and shoes was a knock-out.

Chanel was also feeling the sparkly appliqué trend.

*thunk*

What?  Oh… sorry… dozed off there.  My head must have hit the desk.

Let’s see… I’m still nodding off over blah beige numbers from Christian Lacroix (left, which makes the models look like they’ve got coral sprouting from their ankles) and Elie Saab (right, which seriously interests me in absolutely zero ways… zero).

Can Givenchy wake me up?

Wow!  No!  In fact, those look disturbingly like hospital-wear or slippers or something.  Something that’s NOT going to make me more alert.

Valentino?  Nope.  Any shoe whose separated-at-birth twin is one of those hideous shell-covered mirrors doesn’t wake me up.  It just makes me want to sleep through the tackiness.

Jean Paul Gaultier perked me up a little bit.  Sure, the structured, mostly-monochromatic thing isn’t necessarily brand new for him, but he did some interesting amendments with more feminine flow and flashes of color, and you know I love me some shoes that come with their own built-in fishnet hosiery.

But, not surprisingly, it was John Galliano who gave me the jolt of caffeine I really needed.  His Dior shoe (it was just the one shoe, really, but in lots of different colors) is fabulously rococo, which only made it that much better to see him bringing in things like Delft tiles and Renaissance portraiture and even a cracked-out Little Bo Peep number.  Love!

I suppose I will just have to sigh and throw my hands up at this season’s couture shoes and hope for better luck next time.

A Dreamy Selection of Shoes for Christmas Eve

Whether or not you’ve got chestnuts roasting on an open fire or stockings all hung by the chimney with care, it is indeed the night before Christmas in my time zone.

And on this night when so many go to sleep dreaming of the delightful treasures to be unwrapped tomorrow and the smiles on faces of other people unwrapping their own treasured gifts, I come bearing some shoes to inspire pleasant dreams.

Here’s an ice sculpture of a Chanel stunner from their upcoming Spring 2009 line.

Who wouldn’t be happy to open this trompe l’oeil Fendi bootie under the Christmas tree?

The Jimmy Choo Roz sandal will spice up any holiday party.

You’ll never be called boring if you show up anywhere in these Marc Jacobs yellow python stilettos.

Just imagine little fairy lights twinkling off the sparkle on these Miu Miu platforms.

Or take a page from Galligator’s book and wish for something blue, like these crystallized Valentino pumps.

And if none of those is making for sweet dreams for you, then I’ll leave you with this final winter wonderland of a shoe that I snapped a photo of in a Paris store window on a recent pass by the classic department store, Le Printemps.

May those of you celebrating have a joyous Christmas.  And may all of you (celebrating or not) have a wonderful last week of 2008 filled with good cheer and good company.