Shoes of Project Runway 5.3

LEANNE WAS ROBBED!!!!  Robbed, I tell’s ya!

How beautiful and classy and chic-with-a-(literal)-twist was this outfit?  It’s a blouse and skirt, and I would wear both of them, together, separately, any which way I could.  And she accessorized it perfectly with that gold necklace and the Gucci Eva wing-tip inspired platform pump.

On the other hand, the actual winning outfit (Kenley’s) did indeed look like it was made with… what did Joe call it?  Ft. Lauderdale pool furniture cushion fabric.  From the 80s.  Not in a good way.  I’ll give it that it was interesting and well-made and a good interpretation of the photograph on which it was based.  And it gave us our first double shoe usage (the emerald green Robert Cavalli sandal from episode 1).  But I can’t put this dress in the top 3 at all, let alone give it the win.

Who would I say was deserving of more love (and perhaps a spot in the top three instead of either Kenley’s or Terri’s (which was also interesting, but the dress over pants thing is old hat, and hers seemed to have a lot of extra messy fabric that made it look flouncy rather than streamlined sexy)?

Once again, Jerell.  He made a whole gown, for chrissake!  And it’s perhaps more limiting in what kind of “night on the town” you can wear it to (a black tie gala?  a flamenco performance?), it’s beautifully made and a gorgeous dress.  And worn with shoes that are not quite the Kenneth Cole Hit or Miss, but pretty close.

I’d also give a shout out to Kelli for this rocker Mad Max number, which went perfectly with the Gucci Ebony sandal, which isn’t available anymore, but I remember well from Chris March’s Hershey outfit last season.

I mean, I even didn’t hate Blayne-licious and his neon frills.  Though I didn’t much like the blah shoe choice (something along the lines of the Charles David Devin pump).

Emily’s losing “little black dress with a corsage” (Tim Gunn is always right, people.  Listen to him!) wasn’t great, and one could argue that the Gucci Eva maryjanes (guess it was the night for Gucci Eva shoes) were the most fabulous part of the outfit.

But in this, too, I think the judges went wrong.  Because I swear to you that I would much sooner be seen in public wearing that dress—which is at least kicky and has an energy to it—than Jennifer’s dowdy and depressing silk charmeuse number, which looks like maternity wear for a ladies club luncheon rather than a dress for a night on the town.

The shoes are VERY DEFINITIVELY the best part of this outfit.  They’re the secret love child of the Stuart Weitzman Vanity and the Christian Louboutin Caberet, and I love them.  Unlike the dress.

Shoes of Project Runway 5.2

I have a sinking feeling about the shoes of this season, at least as far as posting about them goes.  Because here’s the second week running where a number of the interesting shoes don’t seem to be available on Bluefly anymore.

Take Suede’s fantabulous dress, which rocked the runway and deserved its win (well… wait till I get to the Jerell dress).  Its shoes were similar, but not identical to, these Dolce & Gabbana red satin numbers.

The idea of buying that dress from Bluefly is seriously tempting me.  I love it.

Apparently using the same shoe in black was Korto, whose dress wasn’t as terrible as all that, in my mind.  Not great, but at least tailored and structured and classy looking (unlike Wesley’s mangled mini and Leanne’s overly elaborate number that looked like the secret love child outfit of Peter Pan and a flight attendant).

And, oh look!  Terri used the same ones, too, but in what looks like a navy patent leather.  But the closest that seems to be available is this Modern Vintage Karina sandal.

Here’s another triple play shoe of this episode, used by Daniel, Joe, and Wesley respectively.

But does it appear on Bluefly?  Doesn’t look that way, because the closest comparable I can offer you is the Kenneth Cole Paper Back, which ain’t too close at all.

There were a couple pairs of shiny silver shoes, too.  This closed-toe maryjane from Stella, and this (cuter) sandal with the (cuter) outfit last week’s winner, Kelli, designed.

But, again, the closest Bluefly has to offer is this Dolce & Gabbana strappy sandal.

So, with a final note of trepidation and a hope that this “mystery shoe” situation will soon remedy itself, I will leave you with the outfit that I was the most head over heels in love with.  Jerell’s.

Oh, how this outfit deserved more love from the judges.  Peacock feathers for earrings and trim.  Perfectly matching bracelets.  Look at that collar!  This is young and sophisticated and fresh, and I love love love it.  Sure Suede’s deserved the win (look at how much work he put into that thing, and how beautifully it turned out), but this was the dress I wanted to walk off that runway with.

Of course, shoe-wise, even these seemingly basic black patent mj’s don’t seem to be on Bluefly, because the closest I could find was this pair of Dolce Vita suede and patent Brighton heels.

Selections from the Shoes of Project Runway 5.1

Yes, it’s back.  Much like Galligator, I’m hella excited to see Project Runway back for season 5.  And whaddaya know, it’s back to Season 1 for the famous supermarket challenge.

My god, a lot of them used tablecloths.  That makes for a boring supermarket challenge, folks.

But the new Bluefly shoes were lots of fun.

Let’s give Kelli her props for this winning outfit, which was a beautiful dress AND made of creative products (vacuum cleaner bags, coffee filters, push pins, and my very favorite element: the spine of a spiral notebook for hook & eyes on the back).  And the Charles Nolan Casey pump was a nice shoe to go along with it.

In other interesting shoe choices, we’ve got Emily’s bouncy ball collar dress with the Charles Nolan Tara boots in bronze.  Gotta say, the collar’s fun, but the boots are my favorite part of the outfit.

Following on in the school of “the shoes are the best part” was Jennifer’s paper towel dress.  The dress was cute enough (if a little snore-inducing), but the emerald green Roberto Cavalli sandals popped.

I liked Joe’s “Italian” themed pasta dress.  And much as I gasp in horror to imagine it, it looks like Bell (the model) may be shoving her feet into these funky Christian Dior Anniversary pumps without benefit of ankle strap or proper sizing.

On the rare “affordable shoe” front, it looks like Daniel (who when he first showed up in a camera angle that didn’t show his face, terrified me for a moment that Daniel Franco was back… AGAIN) used the Savior mules from Charles by Charles David.  Also Elena here was by far my favorite model.

And then we get to eliminated Jerry’s crazy shower curtain/tablecloth concoction that does indeed (as one of the contestants said on the show) look like it belongs in American Psycho.  And the Cesare Paciotti white boots (embellished with even more crazy ribbons) don’t help matters.  As far as I’m concerned, this Auf’d designer was good riddance.

I won’t go into all the shoes, because this post would go on for days, but I can’t wait to see how they use the shoes this season, and to figure out which is the Patron Shoe of Season 5.

Shoes of Project Runway 4.11: Final Round Up

We’ve made it, folks. The designers going to Bryant Park have been chosen. Well, they already went, and had their fashion shows last week, and all of the final 5 designers got to show their collections (see pics of them all by scrolling back through the Blogging Project Runway posts).

But the finale of the show is still to come, and this was the last episode with Bluefly runway shoes. So, here are the shoes that were used on this final episode, where the challenge (to create an outfit inspired by a work of art at the Me) was one of my all time favorites.
Of course, Jillian went with the Patron Shoe of Project Runway 4 with this outfit inspired by the armor in this Master of the Argonauts painting.

Rami made a lovely but snore-ful dress inspired by (surprise surprise) a Greek statue of Aphrodite with Classical draping. He paired it with the Marc Jacobs plum colored platforms we’ve seen before.

The Whiner won the challenge with this elaborate multi-piece outfit that I will grudgingly admit (as I do with all his stuff) is some gorgeous fashion design. His inspiration was a portrait of Don Andrés de Andrade y la Cal by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and he used a pair of black pointy-toe boots to nice effect with this outfit. Hard to tell exactly which boots these are, but it looks like they’re the same ones Jillian and Victorya used with their English punk-inspired outfit, for which I’d suggested these Kenneth Cole “That’s the Point” boots.

Sweet P went with a painting of a beautiful peacock’s tail by Melchior d’Hondecoeter, and created a dress that was cute, but underwhelming for this final challenge. The hair and make-up is really what made this outfit, if you ask me. And she used the mysterious gold sandals that have shown up several times before, but don’t seem to be up on Bluefly anymore.

And even though we can’t see the shoes on Chris’s outfit (and even though the dress was greatly reminiscent of the dress he and Christian designed a few weeks ago) I post it here, because it was indeed a gorgeous gown. The painting that inspired it is a portrait of Marie Francoise De La Cropte De La St. Abre by Jean Marc Nattier.

Find the Shoes of Project Runway 4.10

The end is nearing, folks.  We’re down to 5 designers, which means that after one more elimination, the remaining designers get to show their stuff (even if we’ll only see 3 of them).  It also means that we’re getting farther and farther away from when these shows were actually taped.  And what bearing does that have on our “Shoes of Project Runway” posts?  It means they’re harder and harder to find, because these shoes were things that were available from Bluefly a good while back.

So I open the floor up to you, Shoeblog readers.  I’ve posted the snaps of last night’s outfits (with shoes), and you track em down.

Shall I get you started?

Well, it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t have the Patron Shoes of PR 4, would it?  And sure enough, here they are, with Jillian’s “sexy tomboy” outfit for Michelle.

Other than that, Ricky used these excellent ankle boots with his lackluster (and deservedly eliminated) outfit for Layla, who he also served poorly by doing her hair and makeup like it was a Flashdance tribute show.

The Whiner kept the shoes simple with this outfit that, while certainly an accomplishment of design and certainly well loved by Kristal (its recipient), doesn’t look remotely like something that would work in a wrestling ring.

Chris’s winning outfit for Maria (and oh boy, did that outfit deserve to win!) was well matched with these buckling knee-high boots.

And Sweet P and Rami used strappy, sparkly sandals for their outfits for Candice Michelle and Torrie respectively, which were both rather blah, if you ask me.

Can you find the shoes, intrepid readers?