I know I did a Paris Week recap, but I wanted to show you Hermes. It is interesting that Jean Paul Gaultier can feature some of the most bizarre shoes and clothing for his own line, but his Hermes collection was completely wearable.
Jean Paul Gaultier with Lily Cole.
It had a 60’s Avengers look complete with furled umbrella, bowler hats and lots of leather. Love it.
I am a natural redhead who looks great in brown, tangerine and rust. When I saw this outfit I started making a mental list of how I could re-create this look for myself. It is smashing.
Here are the shoes Gaultier put with these outfits.
I saved the best for last. How gorgeous are these boots. I would wear these every day if I owned them.
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.
Now that the biggest mama of Fashion Weeks, Paris, is over, I thought I’d review some of the Parisian footcandy.
The shoes in Paris seemed to fall into one of two categories: boring boots or impossibly weird abstraction/comical portrayals. These photos are via nymag.com since I was sadly not there to witness Paris.
What is up with Jean-Charles de Castelbajac’s critter kookers?
Hussein Chalayan, meanwhile, gave us grandma-on-acid legwear with men’s shoes. Etrange!
The legwear matched the neckwear. Do you remember ER, Endoplasmic Reticulum, from freshman biology? That’s what this stuff looks like to me. Where are the ribosomes? Is this organelle going to swallow us whole?
At Givenchy, red, black and laceups with hexagonal buttons were the rage. Some of these boots were pretty but with so much red? Red pants and red tights with red shoes seems a bit much, especially in this shade.
At Gaultier, weird, gauche Asian-influenced style ruled. Sure, the Chinese slipper with ballet lacings inside the platform is innovative, but the colors are so outlandish and the shapes are such an eyesore, I cringed all the way through looking at these. And what modern woman really wants to look like a raver candy-colored geisha/elf on acid?
We see what you are going for here, Gaultier, and we just want to let you know that you need to go back to the drawing board and erase some of the cheese. It looks like you stole your fabric from the discount bin at Chinatown’s worst shop and threw some sweatpants made from dishtowels on over dollar store tights.
Some of the others at Gaultier weren’t QUITE as appalling but were still generally a tad bit frightening, especially when combined with horridly ugly pants meant to show off the socks and shoes.
Have we noticed that every single model’s feet are too big for the shoes? Inside the closed-toe shoes, the models’ toes must be aching! I heard that a lot of these ubertall models wear size 10 or 11 shoes! No wonder they can’t find shoes their size!
Chloe didn’t show us any love with weird bootie boots emblazoned with their name. Nothing to be proud about, these horsey moonboots.
Miu Miu did something playful but doubtful in its show. It looks like Minnie Mouse’s ears and bow have been folded over this foot! This is too hot for summer and will get wet in winter. Perhaps with a different fabric like leather?
Sonia Rykiel to the rescue. She had at least one lovely pair of shoes, though they weren’t avant-garde in any way and should’ve been a larger size for this model, whose heel sticks out awkwardly. Why can’t her Target collection have shoes like this instead of just weird stripey clown sweaters no fashion-loving Frenchwoman would ever wear?
She also had some kooky jewels on some ugly shoes (which, although they were the same shape as the above beauties, seem to be horribly and quickly made, with wrinkles and uneven stitches).
Maybe next time we’ll see some things that strike wonder and fancy with their innovation instead of just strangeness and confusion. Until the spring shows!
The scene outside Christian Siriano’s Fall 2010 show was chaotic. In the midst of the pushing and shoving, I took a moment to reflect on the meteoric career of this pint-sized fashion phenom. Project Runway has had 6.5 seasons of varying success. Siriano is the only winner to have joined the ranks of the fashion elite consistently showing in the Bryant Park tents and dressing the likes of Christina Hendricks, Mena Suvari, Victoria Beckham and Rihanna. In the Project Runway world showdown, Siriano is the clear winner. (Though I would like to take this moment to point out that Chris March did dress Meryl Freakin’ Streep for the Golden Globes!) His sharp upward trajectory is the stuff of highly unrealistic dreams for young designers the world around.
Inside the tents, the madness only got worse. A wide array of celebs were completely surrounded by reporters who camera flashes all but overtook the blue-tinged lighting design, as they practically killed each other to get to Mena Suvari, Amber Rose (sans Kanye, but clothed for once!), Veronica Webb, and Leigh Lezark. Once the crush settled and people finally got to their seats the show began.
The theme of this collection was an edgy, modernized 18th/19th century Parisian woman. (Yes, you heard that right. It was both modern and antique.) The shoes in particular included details that were reminiscent of the curlicues that adorn the often ornate furniture of that era.
Let’s start with the good.
Being a sucker for heel adornment, I love the webbing between platform and heel. It looks a bit more like a wrought iron fence that a Rococo Desk to me, but it’s still good. Also notable is that that ultra high heel with built-in platform is definitely sticking around. I like it.
I also liked these booties with their curlicue half-wedges. The texture on the bootie itself adds some visual interest, not to mention the pattern of the wedge. Chrome accents have been popular for quite awhile now and it seems that this trend will be continuing into Fall 2010.
There was some talk that Siriano would create his own version of the famed Armadillo shoe crafted by his former mentor, the visionary Alexander McQueen, (whose recent tragic death is an immense sadness and such a tremendous loss). No such shoe appeared on his runway. While these are certainly lovely for what they are (they have an antique table leg thing going on with the heel there), I wonder if perhaps these were meant to be a significantly more understated version of the other shoes that appeared on McQueen’s Spring 2010 runway. These:
Now that I see them side-by-side, I wonder if I maybe let my imagination get the better of me, but it could be possible. It could.
Siriano’s other two attempts at footwear were a bit less successful. The sandal/booties seemed a bit…familiar and I thought that though they supported the edgy/classy dichotomy he was going for, they seemed a bit awkward. Maybe it was just that they were paired with sheer hose, a trend with which I will never be on board?
The fluffy, blue heels that he paired with his gowns were ribbony and ruffly and a bit bridal. It would be a really cool wedding, but still a wedding.
Overall, I thought that Christian showed growth as a designer. It’s clear that salability was more important to him this time ’round, which makes sense in the current economy. And frankly, I was not the biggest fan of his claw shoes from Spring. The patterns I LOVED, the claws….not so much. It will be interesting to see how he scales these down for his Payless line in the fall. The beauty of these shoes is in the small details; he dosen’t have the kooky fabrics or novelty zippers to work with in this go-round so I have my fingers crossed that he will retain the romanticism of the originals without losing too much to the lower-priced materials. (Imagine those beautiful molded black heels in cheap plastic…Eek!) Siriano has made legions of Payless customer happy with his fashion-forward designs and it seems that, with these, he is poised to continue to do so.
Yesterday night, I went to Doo.Ri’s Spring 2010 show. It was elegant and though cutting edge for her, relatively tame in comparison to most shows, in a relatively tame year.
I was lucky enough to snap a few photos while sitting, but regrettably realised once I was pinned into my seat on both sides by eager Doo.Ri addicts that I would have gotten better photos standing.
These are the interesting platform netted shoes Ms. Chung showed. The nets somewhat obscure the silver sheen effect from the back, but from the front and sides, the sheen is much more evident. I liked all the views of the shoe.
Doo.Ri is a master at draping, and here, she masterfully drapes the shoe nets so that the models won’t trip over any wayward netting. I couldn’t help wondering, however, what would happen if one of those pieces of fabric came loose. Just one tiny little piece.
Heel detail is always so sexy and so dangerous! Beware the walker!
Like vines, the black netting turns into wiry, stringy bits that curl and twist around the top of the foot. It must be some kind of wire, not just string. This could be a DIY project for your own shoes at home. Grab some wire and twist it around the front of your shoe and attach -- et voila! Result not promised to look like this.
The shoes were sometimes paired with similarly webby, meshy stockings. These looked almost glutinous, like they would come off like a facial peel or saran wrap that was sticky and jelly-like. Silver chain purses were de rigeur. A lot of thought went into the accessories and they played a big part in this show. (I hate when the accessories seem like just an afterthought).
As you can see, the color themes stuck to silver and grey with a smattering of blue and pink. Grey is my favorite color so I was well pleased. Grey, to me, is so dignified, ladylike and pretty. And grey shoes go with everything, don’t they? Perhaps grey is the new black, indeed.
Lips were greyish silver matte with just a tinge of violet on some of the models. Hair was loose and girlish. Doo.Ri is a restrained lady. That’s what a lot of people love about her. She’s the anti-Betsey Johnson, even the anti-Anna Sui in many ways. Not better, just different.
Doo.Ri was inspired for this collection by an installation by Annette Messager called My Wish Is Under Netting.
Outside of fashion, performance and art are my life, and sculpture and installation are my favorite forms of art. I can see why Doo.Ri was so moved by Messager’s work, which involves putting seemingly innocuous objects that actually emote strongly below netting or between string, as in these photos.
Doo.Ri is so restrained, so encapsulated by form and constriction, but the net she uses seems to be her toy. She plays with the very form that restrains her. Perhaps the master’s tools can dismantle the master’s house, in this house of fashion. Perhaps that’s the only way, in most fashion.
Doo.Ri’s necklaces and belts reflected these tendencies with string and netting as well. The necklaces were whimsical and lovely.
And sure, Doo.Ri does sexy and risque and edgy! She swears! (Well, at least, for her… but in comparison to the Italians, our fair lady of draping’s a practical nun!)
Well done, Ms. Chung! I hope I get a chance to buy these draped net/string/wire platforms someday! And P.S., thanks for playing a band I love, Passion Pit!
Jean Paul Gaultier with Lily Cole.
Piperlime
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