Casadei’s Sparkling Champagne Dream Shoes

I could wax on for days about these shoes. Adjectives such as fabulous, elegant, breathtaking, and more come trippingly off my tongue when confronted with this much concentrated shoe perfection. Shoes like these make me want to get married all over again just for the opportunity to wear them at least once.

Well, that’s quite enough of a lapse into hyperbole for the time being. I could go on all day; instead let me distill my mental stew of adjectives into the following statement:

Oh, look! Pretty!

Casadei Crystal Heel Platform Slingbacks $1870 via Neiman Marcus

SS12 Fashion Week Footwear: OMG YSL

Shoe lovers, we’ve been together long enough that I feel I can confide my deepest-felt emotions to you, and it’s with that security and knowledge that I make this confession.

I am in love.

I am in love with a platform.

I am in love with a beautifully fastened slingback.

I am in love with an etched instep shield.

I am in love with texture combinations that are simultaneously creative and restrained.

I am in love with the continuation of the SS12 trend for shiny shiny metallic gold.

I am in love with footwear that requires a polishing cloth.

I am in love with heels that are actually a wearable height.

I am in love with a neutral color palette highlighted by jewel tones in suede.

I am in love with reflective surfaces in unexpected places.

I am in love with shoes that can somehow be business-like and sexy as all get out.

I am in love with the kind of glitz that belongs on Audrey Hepburn’s stylish feet.

I am in love with dainty, on-trend ankle straps.

I am in love with toes that are just the right rounded square shape.

I am in love with shoes that are classic enough to last season after season.

I am in love with a sprinkling of sparkly crystals.

I am in love with the way the light shines off all those matte and semi-lustrous surfaces.

I am in love with shoes that seem to be from a whole bunch of 20th century decades all at once.

I am in love with elegant hardware details.

I am in love with a play of hard and soft.

Yes, Shoeblog fans, it’s true.  I am in love with Stefano Pilati’s Spring/Summer 2012 shoe collection for Yves Saint Laurent.

SS12 Fashion Week Footwear, Kreayshawn Style

That’s right.  Milan’s bringing us the goods Kreayshawn is too cool to sport.  Not the Louis Louis part, but we’ve got the Gucci Gucci, the Fendi Fendi, and the Prada, and I like them in basically that order.

So I’m going to do the same.

Gucci Gucci:

Retro and glam, sure, but kind of ho-hum.

Fendi Fendi:

Love the architectural heel and the funky mix of materials, but there’s something very Banana Republic about this to me, and while I love me some Banana for wardrobe basics, it’s not really what I want to see from the runways.

But then we get to Prada.  Oh, Prada, how delightfully quirky are your shoes.  Always.  Prada shoes can reliably be counted on to BRING IT, and this collection is no exception.  It’s like a time travel trip via pink Cadillac to the coolest, sleekest 1950s diner there ever was.  Hot rods and high fashion: the combination I never knew I wanted.  And so I’m going to stop yammering and finish this post out with the Prada goodies.  Kreayshawn, I don’t think this is footwear for basic bitches… just sayin’.

SS12 Fashion Week Footwear Trend Alert: Transparency

The manic Fashion Week energy has moved on away from New York City, but that only means it’s off across the Pond from Big Apple to Big Smoke.  London Fashion Week is well under way, and we’re seeing some of the same trends at Somerset House that New York brought us at Lincoln Center.

For example, that transparency thing that I mentioned with the uber uncomfy Carolina Herrera’s posted here or the Marchesa and Narciso Rodriguez shoes over here?

Well, I’m calling it.  Add it to the list of trends to keep an eye out for come Spring.

See-through footwear showed up through the rest of NYFW in shows like 3.1 Phillip Lim (left and center) and Chado Ralph Rucci (right).

Now, if you ask me, those are all three of them painful looking.  Talk about edges of straps digging into your foot.  And despite that last show being an awfully good attempt at a modern day Cinderella slipper, it’s nothing I’d want to be wearing to the ball to meet Prince Charming.  Hell, after a night of dancing in those, I’d be ripping ‘em both off and tossing ‘em at Prince-y, just to get them off my feet.

To round out the New York’s see-through bounty, the Marc Jacobs show flirted with transparent shoes, including these booties, which fill me, realist that I am, with dreadful imaginings of how rank and sweaty and stinky they would be after a day of wearing them.

And then we went to London!

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SS12 Shoe Trend Alert: Ankle Straps

The trend alerts continue, and they’re comin’ on strong.

We’ve covered some of the patterns already, but if I had to predict one thing that’ll show up most come next spring, it’s not white or buckles or shiny shiny gold (though here are drive-by pics to show that Zac Posen has also jumped on the C3PO train, as has Thakoon… love those gilded toe caps!).

It’s ankle straps.

Yep.  Some are thin, like these Zac Posen’s or the Derek Lam ones I posted about earlier.  But mostly, we’re getting thick ankle straps that fasten in all kinds of interesting ways.

There are zips, like at the Custo Barcelona show:

There are ties, like these at the Timo Weiland show:

And, of course, there are buckles (buckles!), like that last Timo Weiland shoe above, like the ones at Christian Siriano a few days ago or like the show to which I will dedicate the rest of this post, because the shoes were gorgeous and spring-like and made me want to get all flirty in the sunshine: DKNY.  So feast your eyes on these pretty pretty puppies, and let the Fashion Week shoe parade march on.