It’s time again for Ask the Shoebloggers, and this time it’s not shoes for the bride, but for her bridesmaids.

Here are the initial parameters for this, our newest mission (which, of course, we chose to accept):

My best friend is getting married in September and we’re trying to find the perfect bridesmaid shoes—please help! Our dresses will be black, and she’s hoping to find a black shoe with some red and/or yellow on it (the colors of the wedding and bouquets). Our dresses are knee-length, and very 50s style with a wider skirt and fitted top—not too fancy.  Our location is in the U.S., we’d love to keep the price below $75, but could go up to $100 if need be. A mid- to high heel would be great!

With that, our very own Shoesense went on the hunt and came up with a first round of suggestions. First up was the gorgeous, but too pricey (at $270, and that’s on sale at Piperlime down from a full price of over $400!) Sophie by Cynthia Vincent.

Piperlime also has the Nine West Drazly 2 pump in black and red for $80.

From Nordstrom comes the pretty red/black version of the Boutique Nordstrom Melina pump (also $80).

And finally, the all-black Bruno Premi Deja-Vu slingback ($85).

That was our first round of suggestions. Then our bridesmaid-to-be responded with this:

Thank you so much for your help! We took a look at what you suggested and our bride thinks she would prefer to do a solid yellow shoe, and then put a sash on our dresses or a headband in our hair or something. So now we have changed the focus to yellow. I liked the style of the Nine West one you sent, and we really like a few at J. Crew, but they are a bit out of our price range.

The J. Crew styles she particularly liked are the Gwendolyn satin t-straps ($225)

and the Cleo patent leather t-straps ($195) that are so juicily lemon colored I want to make them into footwear lemonade.

And so now I’ve taken up the call for a yellow shoe, the official Shoeblog favorite color of spring, and very hot right now.

The rsvp Daina is a pretty lemony yellow patent leather sandal ($70) with a swooping heel detail I pretty much love.

The Nine West Argent in yellow satin is a pretty good substitute for the J. Crew Gwendolyn’s, but it’s only $64 at Endless instead of over $200. This one also comes in a yellow leather, but the color doesn’t pop nearly so much as it does in satin.

In other Nine West yellow options (of which there are several), there’s the Doverly ($80), which isn’t solid yellow, but might work anyway.

And if you want to go the super-dainty feminine route, there’s the lovely, refined Solelyn ($64).

The Jessica Simpson Chasie slingback ($100) has that same dark heel/yellow combination as the J. Crew Cleo, though with a heel of 4.75″ I can’t imagine dancing the night away in these at the reception.

There’s a new batch of suggestions for our wedding planners. Let’s see if any of them work out.

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What’s its name? It was just on the tip of my tongue. I guest the gods of onomastics must not be with me today.

You know what I’m talking about:

They’re these new hybrids that fuse approximately 51 trends into one, which could be practical, you know: in one shoe, you hit all the new spring trends! Clockwise from the top:

- Christian Louboutin “Sometimes Lace-up Sandals”–4 1/2 inch heel, platform, and tassels, $860 at Saks;

- Jimmy Choo “Evita” sandal, $1000+ (see their website for more details);

- Manolo Blahnik heels-$900+–call their NY Store for availability;

- Nine West “Heathers”–which I’ve already blogged about–for a fraction of the price of any of the above (about $90).

I have the suspicion that none of these styles would look that good in a low/flat heel, and since wearing the 4″+ heels is out of the question for me, I’m afraid I’ll have to pass on this trend. Not without a pang of jealousy, though, for those of you who can trot merrily in these styles.

(Via NYT T-Magazine.)

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Because my life is a yellow monochromatic obsessive blur lately, I offer you today a bright, chic, ultra-trendy peep-toe slingback oxford from Nine West…in yellow.

The Nine West ‘Heathers’ heels are $93 at Zappos. Cute AND affordable!

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A couple of weeks ago, Shoeblog.com searched the depths of the online world in a quest for dreamy fuschia wedding shoes for a very contemporary and stylish spring bride.

We thought the Nine West Luxious shoes (left) would be a perfect fit for our future bride and they were. Sadly, the size wasn’t available on Zappos and our lovely bride almost had to settle for a different pair of shoes (Chinese Laundry pump; right). Fortunately, Endless.com (which is my new Zappos given that Zappos recently did away with their free overnight shipping) came to our rescue. They had the fuschia Nine West Luxious shoes in stock, with the right size, AND they were four dollars cheaper than Zappos.

I was so eager to see our modern bride with her new shoes and I’m sure you are too. So without further ado, here comes the bride (can’t you just here the wedding march hymn in your head)!

My shoes came today! Thank you so much shoeblog.com! I saw my package was in as soon as I came in from work, I tore them out of the box, took off my Chuck’s, and tried them on right away! I added my tiara so you can tell how it will look with the dress on! (^_^) Just kidding!

And since our bride has assured us that her darling fiance will not be reading our blog (who would have thought that would be a good thing?), I present to you our super fabulous and lovely bride during a wedding dress fitting. Doesn’t she look gorgeous?

Note: Picture siloing done by the bride herself. She happens to be pretty great graphics artist (we know because, as a thank you to us, she designed us a fun Shoeblog logo which we will be revealing in the upcoming weeks).

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I don’t know about you, but for me, a shoe is often made by its details. Well, unless you’re talking about custom-made $1500+ John Lobb shoes, where materials and craftsmanship stand above anything frilly like that; but when we’re talking a middle-of-the road, good but not extraordinary, moderately-to-low price shoe, you know not to expect the finest leathers, or 40 hrs of labor going into each pair. No, you expect cheap, affordable shoes made for next to nothing in some factory in China, but which are fun, spunky, and will satisfy you trendy tooth for a season or so.

That is why I’m delighted with this “vertical” rather than “horizontal” buckle in this Nine West flat (which, btw, is 20% off at Piperlime, going for $62.50, so grab it while you can):

See what I mean? Most buckled shoes feature the buckle perpendicular over the vamp (as if it actually buckles something, mhmph). This one runs in line with your toes, as a rather ironic commentary to the futility of erstwhile utilitarian details. This rather small, but delightfully inventive decoration makes an otherwise so-and-so jacquard in a neutral color scheme stand out in a crowd. I approve!

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