Shoe blog

Discount Design Thursday: What to Buy for the Price of a Few Lattes

So, everyone knows about Simply Vera by Vera Wang at Kohl’s. I’m not a huge fan of the clothes, as I don’t know if the goth meets boho meets Transylvanian count thing really works for me, and I don’t think much of the shoes either.

But recently, on a somewhat scary outlet-plagued suburban family trip to pick up household goods, we stopped at a Kohl’s near my parents’ house in Southern California. It was the first time I’d been inside a Kohl’s since I was 12 and living in suburban Illinois.

That’s where I came across the ELLE line. I was tickled to see that some of the design was quite good, and would expect no less from a line that the magazine stamps its label on. I got a cute little purple cropped sweater with rolled sleeves that doesn’t seem to be on the website, this demure little cropped white jacket and this adorable pintucked faux silk shirt and got loads of compliments on them and looks of disbelief when I revealed their store of origin.

But I didn’t notice the shoes because we didn’t go to the shoe section. Then I looked online on a whim after a cross-continental fashion phone conference with one of my dearest friends today about how we were trying to incorporate looks we weren’t used to, that were edgy and smart and urban, but still thriftily stretched our dollar.

So I was pleased as punch to make the acquaintance of these Ultra Dress Heels, on sale for the price of a pair of Payless heels at $24!!!:

These stylish Vivas look pretty much exactly like a bunch of other current shoes that cost a lot more from other retailers. They are on sale for $39!

And cute! These royal purple Necole flats will have people thinking you paid much more than $19.99 until you tell them how you got a total steal (or don’t):

Bet you ShoeBlog readers can’t wait till Christian Siriano’s line comes out for Payless! What does the man-child adored by Victoria Beckham and well known for accusing people of venturing into Hot Tranny Messdom know about designing shoes? Who knows! But we will all cross our fingers and hope for edgy, fun shoes priced between $25 and $45 from the man best known for being fierce! We’ll preview them next month, but I just wish we didn’t have to wait until this fall to buy them!