Happy Birthday Kenneth Cole

Kenneth Cole will have 56 candles on his birthday cake today.   I am fairly impressed with Kenneth Cole Productions.  It was founded in 1982 by Kenneth Cole. Wanting to preview his line of shoes at Market Week at New York’s Hilton Hotel, but couldn’t afford the purchase of a hotel room to display his items, Kenneth asked about parking a trailer two blocks from the Hilton Hotel. When told that permits for trailers were only granted to utility and production companies, Cole changed the name of his company from Kenneth Cole Incorporated to Kenneth Cole Productions, then applied for a permit to film the full-length film, “The Birth of a Shoe Company”. In two and a half days, Kenneth Cole Productions sold forty thousand pairs of shoes, while chronicling the beginning of the company on film.  Since then he hasn’t looked back.

He and his wife Maria Cuomo are very supportive of several charities and organizations and has been very public in his support of AIDS awareness and research since 1985.   He is known for his socially concious and provocative ad campaigns from his “We all have AIDS” campaign to the current “We all walk in different shoes.” campaign.

Kenneth Cole shoes are mid priced and for their price, they are a fairly good buy.  Here are some Kenneth Cole shoes for today.

Gentle Souls - Sole Lace $210 at Kennethcole.com

Gem nastics $70 at Zappos

Fish n Chips  $70 at Piperlime

And my favorite.  Is this the best color in the world?

Rocky Canyon $107 at Endless

To celebrate I am going to put the above shoe in my Zappos shopping cart.  I may even buy them.  Does anyone else do that?  Put a shoe in the cart and let them sit a while?

Green Shoes to Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

I love St Patrick’s Day because nobody wears green, except on March 17, and it is such a wonderful color.  Everyone assumes I have an Irish ancestor, because of the red hair thing, but the red hair comes from a Scottsman.  Anyways, I have been planning my Irish meal for a week, and have been planning my green outfit for a couple of days.  It’s true, I have no life.  I have no green shoes, either. 

I would LOVE the Gaultier shoes from his Fall Couture line, but that isn’t going to happen.

So I decided to see what endless had for a substitute.

Miss Mooz Full House Sandals $95 at endless.com 

Moda Spana Pamper $75 

Moda also had a green platform pump that was made of the same green leather.  They are really cute.

Harajuku Lovers Avallon $100 

Isn’t the little heart on the heel adorable?

John Fluevog Pearl Hart $208

Fluevog always offers a funky taste to his high quality shoes.  I love them.

For those who just can’t bring themselves to wear a REALLY green shoe, here is an olive green boot that is nice. 

Eric Michael Soho $130

The following is what I ordered.  I hope they fit properly because I really need a green shoe for next year.

Miz Mooz Waverly $95 at endless 

So if you are going out, have a pint of green beer.  I am staying home and will be serving a Guinness Beef Stew and Irish Soda Bread. (We had corned and cabbage last year.)   Dinner is at 6:30, so come by.

What did Fall 2010 Fashion Month tell us?

With the three major fall 2010 fashion events, New York, Milan and Paris,  concluding, there were a few shoe trends that recurred in several collections.  This is what we saw.  Mad Men curves are in.  Fur is in. Many of the big name fashion houses went with classic investment pieces that were timeless looking.  Several of the lesser known houses had some beautiful and interesting  pieces.  Let’s look at some shoes – that’s why we are all here.

Pointy toe shoes are returning, so dust off your Guess “Carrie” shoes because we will be seeing more pointy toes in the future.

Prada

Valentino.  There was a flat and a kitten heel also presented in this collection.

Louis Vuitton

While stilettoes were seen, typically  if the heel was high - especially boots -then it was a chunky heel.  I love the stability chunky heels offer.  Can you imagine tottering around in the above Vuitton shoes if  the heel was pencil thin?

Alexander Wang

Fendi

Erdem – love the print on these boots.

Not many wedges were seen, so I am guessing we will be seeing those phased out over the next couple of years.

Kenzo

Bottega Veneta featured this wedge on all the shoes.

Dries Van Noten.  I LOVE this half wedge.

With the retro girly-fication of the styles  no tough girl platforms were necessary.

Marc Jacobs

Dolce Gabbana

Carolina Herrera

Lanvin (Arguably the best line of the season.)

But lots of platforms were presented.

Christian Louboutin for Phillip Lim

Michael Kors

Burberry Prorsum

Brian Atwood for Victoria Beckham.

There must have been 10 different colors of this shoe because Mrs. Beckham likes to match her shoes to her dress.  These shoes are nice but nothing to hyper-ventilate over.  Her dresses were nice, wearable, and pretty.

Over the knee boots will be around for a while.  We saw over the knee boots in several presentations.  Since this is the fall season, we should not be surprised.

Burberry Prorsum presented some of the season’s favorite boots.

Roberto Cavalli

Statement shoes were everywhere.

If you are a chiropractor, you NEED these shoes.

Dsquared

Nicholas Kirkwood for Rodarte

Louise Goldin

Chanel.  Notice the ice heel.

Chanel’s show, in my opinion was one of the goofiest ideas I think I have ever seen.  Uncle Karl shipped a glacier from Sweden to Paris, had it sculpted it for the runway, put it on a swimming pool type platform,  then the models walked through about an inch of melting glacier water.  He presented some beautiful suits, IF you could see past the heinous fake fur that accompanied these outfits.  Global warming, glaciers melting, save the furry animals was the message of this show.  Here’s the thing. 1) Lagerfield  used more fur in Fendi than virtually any other collection, so why use cheap looking fake fur with Chanel.  2) The carbon footprint of this show was massive and the power it took to present this show could have powered a small country.  (Here is where I usually go off on my global-warming-leadership-hypocrasy tirade, but I won’t because you came here to see shoes.)

OK,  I rarely look at purses, but I WANT THIS PURSE.

Forgive me for this long post, but there were so many beautiful shoes, and even more beautiful outfits.  I wanted to show them all to you but that isn’t possible.

Stella McCartney Fall 2010

Stella McCartney’s styles are typically under my radar.   I think her target age is a bit younger than I am.   Her clothes tend to be too minimalist for me.  Remember,  I am the one who wants to wear sparkly, lacy things, usually purple, but R5Daughter would make fun of me, so I don’t.    Stella’s fall line is VERY work friendly, offering shoes that aren’t extremely high, dresses that are simple but still beautiful, and elegant pants paired with beautiful blouses. 

I like how this sheer blouse doesn’t show a dark bra underneath.  That look is a little tired.

I just want to touch those pants.

She used sheer fabrics but didn’t make the outfits trampy.  This is such a pretty dress.

Now the shoes.

Beautiful kitten heels.

My one concern about this shoe is that the edge of the shoe hits right at the edge of the toe joint.  I am wondering if this would make the shoe want to fall off as you walk, although I don’t see any toe clevage on this model.    It also looks like a toe blister waiting to happen.

Notice, patent leather, pointy toes, pretty colors.  I hope we see alot more of this silhouette.

This was a nice line.  There are those who complained that it was boring, but this line offered several anchor investment pieces that could go to work then out to dinner fairly easily.

Holy Grail Shoes from YOOX

(Image found at reclusland)

Do you have one?

That shoe – the one that got away? That shoe that haunts you since you first saw it and then caused you to obsess over how to make it yours even after it was no longer widely available?

Yeah, I have one too.

Or should I say, had? Because one of my long-term, endlessly-stalked styles finally popped into availability not only while I had a reasonable cash flow for a mini-splurge, but also on final clearance prices.

This shoe has haunted me since I saw it on the runways about 3 1/2 years ago.

Viktor & Rolf Harlequin Deco-heel shoes:

(Photos from Style.com. Viktor & Rolf Spring 2008  RTW)

I never once encountered these in the real world or online during their  initial retail season.

The fact that I have continued to pine for these is an indicator that I have come to rely on over the years;  my non-buyer’s regret’, as it were.  Items that hit me that strongly in the gut are keepers.  They help me in my ongoing quest to reduce my wardrobe to a level that contains only items that I truly love, rather than a closet that is overflowing with styles I rarely wear or don’t love (special exemption exists for hardcore winter gear – simple warmth trumps fashion at times).

Many times, if an item becomes unavailable, I will forget about it or move on to find another style that I actually prefer more than the original one. So, if I am haunted overnight after I walk away from an item, or worse – after it goes out of stock, then I know I’m lost and will stalk retailers and aftermarkets until it is found, even if it takes years to occur (ask me about my sunglasses sometime).

I narrowly missed this pair when they dropped to $170 on YOOX a few weeks ago.  It was 3 days before payday and by the time funds were available, some other lucky, though likely less obsessed, individual scooped them up.

That’s okay though. Because, one payday, and one well-timed tax return, later -  this pair popped up overnight at $138.  Oh yeah, these were meant to be.

And now, these are mine, all mine (insert slightly maniacal laugh here).

They arrived last Thursday. Hubby asked, ‘How much?’. So, I told him, and he replied ‘Not bad.’ End of conversation. Although, it is understood by both of us that these, combined with the dremel tool I picked up this weekend, constitute my birthday gifts -  even though the actual birthday is still 2 months away.

The box was a little scuffed up, but the shoes are new, shiny & perfect (no wonky heel like the picture).

Drumroll…..

Ta Da!

So, do you have a Holy Grail shoe? What is it? Are you still searching, or have you succeeded in obtaining it? What was your hunt like?