SS12 Fashion Week Footwear: Spats at Victoria Beckham

Victoria Beckham’s show was full of clothes that look like Posh herself could show up wearing them somewhere, which I suppose is the mark of a successful celebrity designer.  Her clothes are exactly what you’d buy if you wanted to dress like La Beckham… and weighed approximately 90 pounds.

I’m not hugely blown away by the clothes (though they’re relatively wearable–I’d take that dress on the left pretty quick), but I LOVE her massive use of spats!

The majority of her outfits were accompanied by this often overlooked shoe accessory.  There were over-the-knee spats and snakeskin spats and zip-back spats and more.  Here are a few shots.

Now if only spats could show up in stores come Spring 2012.  I’ll keep my fingers (or, I guess, more properly, my toes) crossed for it.

Christian Louboutin’s Laser Cut Pampas Shoes and Clutch

Unlike many of today’s shoe lovers, I tend to run either hot or cold in regard to shoes from Christian Louboutin. A handful of them ‘wow’ me, but a lot of the others are just okay – classic and elegant, but not really breaking new ground.

However, there are those times when Louboutin creates a shoe that makes me squeal with desire.  The Arabesque spirals and swirls of these Pampas patterned shoes are just such an occasion.

Behold:

Christian Louboutin Pampas pump 150 $1149 at MyTheresa.com

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Dekkori accessories: Spats meet modern fashion.

I encountered the Dekkori brand a few weeks ago while surfing *playing* around the Endless website.

Here’s the deal.  At endless.com, these are referred to as ‘boots’.  That took me aback for more than a moment or two.  But, really, once you get into the product description you begin to realize that these are not meant to be boots; at least not in the classic sense.  If worn by themselves, I suppose these would be more of a pseudo-boot – a potential fashion statement for the bared-foot lovers out there.  I can even really see how these would fit right in onstage at a dance recital.  The reality of these ‘boots’ is more straightforward: These are  a wonderfully modern take on a much older shoe idea: Spats.

Spats (also sometimes called gaiters), in the classic sense, are not seen much in modern times outside of stage, film, and fringe-fashion scenes.  Originally meant as protective footwear extensions to basic shoes, they have, occasionally, taken on a more fashion-centric role (And yes, for good or ill, the occasional resurgence of leg warmers might be seen as part of this trending cycle).

It is the idea of having a detachable shoe upper that can instantly transform a basic or past-season shoe into a completely new silhouette that is still relevant today – particularly if you are a runway fashion lover living on a bargainista budget.

Classic spats have been out of mainstream fashion for decades.  Luckily, these shoe accessories from Dekkori are made with a eye to modern fashion sensibilities and with the current consumer market in mind. The result is silhouettes that  are anything but old-fashioned.  The transformative power of historical spats still remains present within these accessories. But, as you can see, Dekkori has moved far from the spats source ideas in bringing their accessories collection into reality.

So, these are the two ‘boots’ (from the SS ’10 collection) that originally grabbed my attention:

Dekkori ‘Devon’ Cutout lace-up boot $208

Dekkori ‘Riley’ eyelet pull-on boot $128

Dekkori ‘Rocco’ Gladiator boot $146

But these two (from the Fall ’09 collection) are my personal favorites:

Dekkori ‘Charm’ ankle piece $62

Dekkori ‘Innocence’ bow ankle piece $58

The one problem I see with these accessories is their relatively high price-tags. I understand that leather goods have become more expensive over the last 5 years. But, with prices ranging from $40 – $200+ per pair,   a lot of savvy shoppers will be able to find one or more reasonably-priced  ‘whole shoes’ for the cost of just one set of these quirky accessories.

Overall,  I find these to be an intriguing idea. They appeal to the portion of me that loves the idea of limiting production waste.  Interchangeable uppers have the potential to be a great way to ‘go green’ while still indulging your shoe-love.

The basic idea would seem to be a natural marriage to meet the needs of the budget fashion-shopper.  However, the cost on these may be too prohibitive for many consumers. I’m just not convinced that  these are adequately priced to gain the attention of the  ‘budget-based’ consumer.  Instead, these seem to be priced more toward the mid-range and luxury-aspirational consumers, a smaller market by far.  The consumer on a budget knows that  $50 for a pair of shoes was a lot of money 10 years ago – and it still is a lot of money for them today – but today it just doesn’t stretch as far. Will such shoppers be willing to spend this amount of money, or more,  on a partial shoe?

The one place where the Dekkori pieces have an identifiable advantage is for those women who have limited storage space. You can fit a whole lot of Dekkori accessory uppers into the space of just one boot box in your closet. For those shoe lovers with storage issues, Dekkori shoe accessories might be a viable solution to the inevitable storage space dilemma most shoe-collectors eventually face.

Opinions, thoughts?

Boudoir Stools and Closet Kitsch

I consider myself lucky to have purchased a house whose previous owner was likely a shoe-lover like me.  At somewhere over 120 pairs of shoes, even I have not yet managed to completely fill up this legacy  walk-through closet.

But, one glaring omission in my closet set-up is the lack of any proper stool or chair on which to sit when actually putting on the day’s shoes. Admittedly, it’s not exactly a crisis – but the daily hopping around on one foot while stuffing my other foot into a shoe would be a bit less comical and more dignified were I to correct this small wardrobe issue.  And, while it need not be fancy – we are after all talking about a piece of furniture that is only briefly needed on any given day – something pretty or fun would be a nice way of starting out the day.

Luckily, today’s postal offerings included some intriguing shopping options in just this area (in the form of a new catalog ‘Design Toscano‘ – on whose mailing list I have apparently been recently added).

Included are a fair selection of salon chairs, tabourets (of which I have always been fond), and boudoir stools to fit a wide number different styles, tastes, and decors.

Among them:

French Salon corner chair $198 $225

Mademoiselle Cezanne’s French slipper chair $249 $298

King Leopold’s cross-frame tabouret $175

Acanthus leaf mahogany tabouret $495

Lady Annette Boudoir stool $89.95

Madame Bouvier boudoir stool $85.00

And, finally, the piece-de-kitschy-resistance:

Folis Bergere boudoir stool $75.00

How much fun is this last piece – definitely not for those who take themselves too seriously.

Which one would you choose – assuming you have a place to even put it?

Seattle Steamcon 2009

So, Hubby, the kids, and I attended the inaugural year of Steamcon 2009 which was held October 23-25 at the Seattle Airport Marriott.

For a first-year convention, there were certainly a few hiccups, but most of those were a product of the small venue combined with unexpectedly large turnout. When planning a 1st-year event, the only numbers you can rely on are numbers for similar events, in this case, a normal first-year estimate would be in the neighborhood of 400 attendees. Over 1300 attended, and that is not including the number of people who showed up but were unable to get one of the extremely limited number of available day-passes.

Day-pass hopefuls roped a line around a large area of the atrium pool and waited hours for the chance at receiving a badge that would allow them to attend panels, workshops and gaming tables.  I suspect many without badges wandered the halls anyway and just soaked up the general atmosphere.  Can I even over-emphasize how important it was to pre-register?

Final reminder to self: Don’t forget to pre-register for next year at the earliest opportunity. Even with the convention organizers new hunt to locate a larger venue suitable for next year’s convention, it will likely continue to grow in size, so early registration will be vital!

Now, with that out of the way, was it fun?

Hell yeah!

This was absolutely worth finding a way to squeeze the price of registration and the two separate ticketed events out of our rather tight 2009 budget.  Admittedly, being able to get the room on bonus points helped out immensely.

So, hubby and I attended Steamcon as a sort of unplanned 18th anniversary gift to ourselves (though, what does it tell you that we both realized we had this anniversary coming up…. 2 days after it was past?).

Anyway, the kids were with us on Friday only as we got settled into our rooms (Grandma & Grandpa were working Friday, so we had a big family hotel adventure that day & evening), learned the layout of the hotel, checked out the vendor room, and bopped from panel to panel; generally getting a feel for the people and event as a whole. We dressed in steam for the entire event; shopping from our closets since our budget is closely controlled this year. An eclectic personal wardrobe made this less of a challenge for me than it might for others; vests, skirts, ruffled shirts, even a long cavalry-style coat made the trip to Seattle – just in case.

We were also able to spend time with friends we had not seen for years – a wonderful added bonus.

Highlights of the weekend:  Chatting with author Tim Powers while waiting in line at the coffee shop, watching my daughters get dragged onstage by Abney Park lead-singer ‘Captain Roberts’ with the sweeping phrase “Check out the awesome” in reference to their age and outfits,  wearing feathered hats without feeling even a wink self-conscious, and of course, just wandering around among all of the amazing and creative people.

(Abney Park‘s Dread Captain Roberts…pardon the blurry focus, it was dark & a bit of a distance shot)

For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the one thing most Steampunks have in common is a do-it-yourself attitude that takes many forms but which also tends to cross-over with a Victorian aesthetic.  So, these are not cheap Halloween costumes people are wearing; they are truly one-of-a-kind fashion statements.

So, without further ado, just a few of the fabulous and fun people – and outfits – from Steamcon 2009:

(These ladies were so hot; it completely put to lie the idea many modern fashion designers have that you must be a skinny stick-figure to make clothing look good and that curvy women aren’t a worthwhile designer type.  I posit that it’s the impeccable tailoring and fit to an individual’s body-type that makes all of the difference…something that we are unfortunately lacking in today’s ready-to-wear culture.  Lazy fashion designers who can’t fit a gal with curves are also a bit of a personal peeve. Could you tell?)

(Check out those Fleuvogs!)

These are actually Born’s – here’s a detail:

And a close-up of those spats:

There were simply too many amazing outfits and people to show you in a single article. But, if you are interested in seeing more from me or others – particularly if you love boots and spats, I am posting all of my photos in an album on Shoeblog’s Facebook page for your enjoyment.