Designer Shoe Deja Vu: Louboutin Vs. Dollhouse
Posted on July 31st, 2010 by galligator under Christian Louboutin Shoes, Designer Shoe Déja Vu, General
It’s hard to miss Louboutin’s Bridget and Bridget Strass lace mesh booties – several celebs have been spotted wearing them. I suppose it was inevitable that this stunning style would show up in a legal copy somewhere.
I have to admit that while I’m not in any mad rush to buy these, I have a thing for red & black contrasts. So, the red & black mesh ‘Tano’ bootie is, to my eye, a moderately-appealing, inspired style. It is just enough different than the 3K Louboutin original that, while the Strass is unmistakably referenced, it is not a complete duplicate of that shoe (from what I have seen thus far) … Unlike the gold Dollhouse version, which is a pretty faithful copy of the original – sans only the decadent Louboutin heel-bling.
As for the Dollhouse ‘Tish’….. Meh. I’m not liking any of these interpretations of the Bridget styles at all; these just look cheap to me.
Louboutin Bridget ($1795) & Bridget Strass ($3325) – available via Louboutin Boutiques and some Barneys Stores.
Dollhouse Tano – available at Endless ($59.95 $36.47), & DSW ($49.95)..
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Piperlime
July 31st, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Not even CLOSE, in my opinion. Those Dollhouse ripoffs look cheap and synthetic on my monitor, they must be truly plastic looking in person….oh and the 3.5/4 inch heel on the knockoffs……pleeeeeease. Exactly whom would be fooled by those????????? I am a happy owner of the REAL Bridget Strass Louboutin and the heel measures exactly 5 and 1/4 inches at the very back of the heel, I know this because I just measured them myself!
July 31st, 2010 at 3:32 pm
Yeah, I saw some the other day at Spring Shoes:
http://www.myspringshoes.com/ca-eng/women/shoes/peep-toe/79030690-kazemi/96
I think they looked pretty cheap… Then again, they’re 50$!
July 31st, 2010 at 4:25 pm
Valentina, you’ve got the REAL ones?! *faints* Wow, now I’m ridiculously jealous. I, sadly, had to settle for the Dollhouse knockoffs. They’re definitely plasticky, and I kind of regret buying them, even though I got them for only $30…
July 31st, 2010 at 4:33 pm
Oh, and another side note: the link up there to buy the shoes at “Shoe Bungalow” should be removed. That site is a HUGE scam. If you Google “Shoe Bungalow scam”, a LOT comes up. I almost got scammed by the lady who runs the site. It’s also pretty sketchy- there’s no phone contact number listed on the site, and no one’s ever online the “Live Chat Help” thing. If you email the site through the form they have on the site, you never get an answer back.
July 31st, 2010 at 6:13 pm
NO problem on removing the bungalow. The other sites have good reputations.
And Valentina, we all want to take a vacation to your shoe-closet. I suspect a lot of aspirational (often college-age) fashion lovers will consider these until they are in a career and can ‘trade up’ to the real thing. When I was in my 20’s, I was a lot less judgmental about the shoes I wore than I am now that I’ve hit my 4th decade.
July 31st, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Thanks, galligator. I went through a huge hassle with Shoe Bungalow, and I don’t want anyone else to get scammed, either. Should’ve checked the website out before I ordered anything…I blame the shoe obsession
Also, G, i think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I’m headed towards law school in a couple of years, and I’m generally okay with whatever I like that I know is a good deal. Still, I’m a bit picky- I like to stick with Steve Madden, Chinese Laundry, Nine West, Kenneth Cole, Guess, etc. No Target or Walmart shoes for me.
August 1st, 2010 at 8:49 am
Galligator, are you implying that my ’shoe sickness’ will get worse as I age? OH NOOOOOOOOOO……..I turn 30 in October. I suppose I should let hubby know to brace himself!
August 2nd, 2010 at 9:28 am
I don’t know about that. But I am more willing to splurge on the occasional shoe now where it would have seemed insane in my 20’s to spend over $100 for anything but boots. Of course, at 40, I have actual memories of $6.99 shoes from Payless that I wore to death every 2 years before I went out & bought another pair. Now I’m willing to spend more for interesting styles, higher quality, and comfort – and I take much better care of my shoes now as well. Anyway, I probably always liked shoes, but went off the deep end for a couple of years in my mid-30’s after I was finished having kids (3 kids was plenty for me). I’m one of those women whose feet grew (a full size!) during pregnancy thanks to a special hormone called relaxin. So, after I was all done having babies, I had to donate & replace my entire small (maybe 25 pairs?) shoe collection that I had slowly built in my 20’s. And internet shopping had matured during that 5-year period: Endless, Zappos, Shoebuy & more – It was addictive for a little while but now I have more control over the shoe buying urge, and my budget. Plus, I’m still somewhere deep-down convinced that if I’m paying over $1000 for something, it should have a motor or engine in it – or at least moving parts. Those working-class roots of mine & my tendency to over-think & question the value of any spending over $300 will likely never go away – and so usually (though not always) keep me under control.
August 2nd, 2010 at 11:53 am
Gal… My friend always says, “You get what you pay for, but you have to pay for what you get.” That has always been the thing that keeps me from buying the insane priced shoes I want. That and the fact that I have three more kids who want to be in college. aargh.
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I hear you. 3 kids here, too. And we are doing the pay for retirement 1st & see what is left over after. Not to be evil, but there are loans for college & as parents we can probably help with that, but there are no loans or financial aid for retirement. At least hubby understands that these days, $150 is still a lower-end shoe. I think I have exactly 3 pairs of shoes where I buckled & spent over $300 for them. But, usually I will let it go or luck out & find a sale for under 2 bills. Unfortunately, the shoes I am loving this year have all increase so much in base retail that even if I go sale shopping next spring at YOOX, a lot of them will never drop below the low $400’s. Sigh. I hate being a shoe-lover watching myself slowly getting priced out of the market. Once that happens, I may have to start hunting vintage designers.
August 2nd, 2010 at 6:57 pm
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August 3rd, 2010 at 5:47 am
It always surprises me how people can blatantly rip off someones design and profit from it with out so much as anyone batting an eyelid. The Dollshouse shoe look cheap and nasty….especially next to Louboutins. I know we can’t all afford £600 for a pair of shoes but why purchase a knock-off – at least purchase a shoe that has it’s own personality.
August 3rd, 2010 at 8:44 am
BSB -sometimes the ‘inspiration’ is obvious – a la this pair. But sometimes inspiration is more general. Anyway, I’ve found most women don’t know the main brands well enough (aka aren’t nearly as obsessed as we) to recognize most copied styles. I’m less bothered whan a copy borrows silhouette and changed fabric/pattern, etc. that weren’t produced by another brand than with direct reproduction-type styles. Also, copying & inspiration (usually with at least minor changes) happens in both directions, but there are a handful of brands that certainly seem to do runway-similar styles as a matter of course (Steve Madden, Paris Hilton, Pelle Moda, Martinez Valero & Pour La Victoire – off the top of my head). At this moment in time, such copies are legal in the US as long as no copyrights/logos are used to try and sell such shoes as originals (ie. actual counterfeits claiming to be originals or AAA copies). Anyway, there is legislation pending to try an add a 3-year copyright protection to fashion items which in the past have been unprotected (both due to their place as utilitarian objects and the possible stifling effect such legislation might have on artistic creativity – there is a lot of debate out there as to whether such protection will help or stifle fashion trending & creativity). If it goes through, we will see what, if any impact, it has. I certainly hope it is well-written so that no one tries to copyright buckles on a shoe or the generic platform. It’s a difficult area to legislate.
On a more general note, I don’t think anyone’s going to mistake the $50 copies for the 4-bill original. But it really is incredibly lazy for shoe-lines to use other people’s ideas so faithfully. There are hundreds of $50-$150 shoe brands out there that manage to be successful without resorting to such imitation. They’d look at the silhouette & bring out their own variation of a lace bootie or some such.
This reminds me of a few years ago when I really fell for the Gucci Mirror Sandals. They had a metal plate detail against a black leather but were around $700 if I remember correctly. Well, I have still not paid quite that much for a pair of shoes & couldn’t justify it back then, either. So I resigned myself to hope for a pair on sale or find one later on *bay. Then, I found an ankle boot by Guess (about 18 months before ankle booties hit it big on the runways) that had a little metal plate screwed to the back of the heel. It had the attitude of the sandals, but was re-interpreted in such a different way that you couldn’t say for certain if the Gucci sandals had definitely influenced the details in any way.
And yes, most of the time you can find a shoe with it’s own personality that is in whatever your own price range/comfort zone happens to be. That is another thing that helps me to pass on shoes that hover over my own ‘ouch’ point. Hopping over to Endless or Zappos & doing a search for a style & getting thousands, sometimes tens of thousands of results usually means there will be something that I love as much, if not more, than the original style that sent me looking.
August 4th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
OMG! I really don’t get why ladies keep on purchasing the kind of expensive shoes. Those prices of shoes aren’t practical.
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:34 pm
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