I love Hayden-Harnett. I LOVE Hayden-Harnett. Back in February, trainingheels gave you all the 411 on this Brooklyn design company and their beautiful bags and shoes. Their pieces are interesting and unusual as well as being beautifully made and comfortable. AND I just got an amazing deal…details to come later. Anyway, their Sp2010 line of bags, shoes, and clothes rocked a distinct 50s look, especially the high-cut bathing suits that are ALL the rage right now. For real. I kid you not.

Let’s start the show:

Did I mention their show was called “Lava Fields of Love”? Wanna see why?

CLOSE UP!

Trippy.

Seriously though, as a direct result of the name of this show I kept hearing the following in my head during the entire show:

We are young, heartache to heartache we stand
No promises, no demands
Love is a battlefield

Yeah. Get that out of your heads. I dare you.

I love this model, by the way. She is from Australia and I have seen her several times. She’s super sexy and her name is Silvana Lovin. Which is so much fun to say. I deeply hope that her email address is Lovin@home, or Lovin@the beach, or Lovin@Shoeblog or something of that nature. Very sweet, too.

PS - Hayden Harnett also produced the cuffs that several of the models are wearing. LOVE!

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Ahhh yes, we all remember the scene in Sex and the City (the finely tuned TV show, NOT the less-than-stellar film) where Carrie tries to improve her sex life with that guy from Office Space by wearing furry shoes. Or more specifically, boudoir slippers with pom-poms that resemble recent escapees from Victoria’s Secret but which probably cost about a bajillion dollars.

That scene nauseated me a little bit.

Carrie expressed some conflicted emotions about wearing furry shoes. So the question is: Would you, the fashion-forward, strong-willed woman that you are, actually wear furry shoes? There are certainly a wide variety of them available.

Let’s discuss. In pictures, of course.

Furry house slippers are no new thing. Almost everyone has a pair. But what if they crossbred with a heel? I found these pricey Bettye Mullers at Gabay’s (an amazing New York secret shoe heaven) a few weeks ago. They are furry inside, similar to the things I curl up on my couch in to survive winter storms, but they are heeled! And bejeweled! On the Pro side, there is something very French Royal Court about these. For me they evoke Marie Antoinette much more strongly than the Louboutin ones that we recently discussed. For one thing, the heel height is in keeping with the era, also the decoration around the toe box is typical of court shoes. Besides, fur-lined shoes seem like the perfect thing to weather a winter in a stone castle with no central heating.

If the French Court isn’t your thing, how about putting a furry English Rose garden on your feet? The fur flowers on the outside of these are kind of strange, but they certainly bring a new light to our be-furred shoe conversation. These are the same brand as the previous set. What do you think? Do they have interesting texture or do they look like they’re molting?

Oddly enough, from my view the two pairs we already covered are the more practical of our selections today. I found these at Loehmann’s. For a cool $299 (marked down from $955), you can get the boudoir-esque, pom-pom bedecked variety that so aided Carrie in her nighttime pursuits. These are grey, while hers were pink but the whole sexy evening mule thing is the same. Do you think these are sexy?

For some real history and more research, I went to see the appropriately title “Seduction” exhibition at the Fashion Institute of Technology. I browsed through the seductively draped Halston gown, the John Galliano leather dress, and some and a ‘58 Balenciaga, I came across the perfect addition to this post: these white silk Manolo Blahnik mules with burgundy ostrich feathers from 1998. There’s some real history for ya. Maybe not a long history, but history nonetheless.

I guess we can pretty safely say that furry shoes are a symbol of sensuality, or at least sexualty to many people. But sometimes accepted symbols start to lose thir meaning so I am very interested in what you guys think. In an interesting twist, I found that the quintessential movie moment to define the furry shoe question came not from Sex and the City, but from a much less likely place: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In explanation:

“Give me a [shoe], any [shoe], and I tell you how that [shoe] is come from Greek!

(Members of the Greek infantry standing guard at the Monument of the Unknown Soldier in Athens.)

“There you go!”

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It’s no mystery that metallics mysteriously come into fashion every Spring. Each year, the fashion magazine report, with breathless admiration, how “New!” and “Exciting!” this ground-breaking trend is. Whatever people; we’re on to you. We knew it was coming, but that doesn’t make metallics any less fun. In the spirit of fun Spring trends, here are some of the fancier metallic footwear that is (or will soon be) available.

Marc Jacob Heart Heel, approx $638 (converted from British Pounds).

A more practical version is the Marc Jacobs Heart Ballerina, approx $475 (converted from Euros)

Nicholas Kirkwood Black and Gold Sandals, approx $787 (converted from GBP)

Remember these from Phillip Lim’s Spring collaboration with Christian Louboutin (we wrote about it!)? Well now you can get your own pair. Britney Spears already got hers (in the red, heeled version). She’s got them on in her video for “If You Seek Amy.” The people dressing her are really working hard these days. Check out the Christian Louboutin “Adona” Sandal, $1265 at Saks.

CL also shows us what would happen if a disco ball was reimagined as a shoe. The Very Galaxy Platform Pump is available at Saks for $1295.

Brian Atwood gives us a cool Gold Wedge Sandal ($1870, but only available on request).

Prada has a Christmas wrapping type lace up sandal.

Pierre Hardy gives us geometric sandals in both silver and gold. Available on www.pierrehardy.com.

And let’s not forget the shoes we saw on the runway at NY Fashion week 2009. These suckers won’t be available for a good long while and are oficial part of “Fall,” but designers this season seemed a bit confused about what is constitutes Spring and Fall, so bring them on.

I remember when I saw this armored gold bootie at the Karen Walker shoe, I nearly fell out of my seat. It’s even more gorgeous in person than it is in photos.

And Costello Tagliapietra’s models rocked the runway in these and these:

Johnathan Saunders shone when he showed these:

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Oh My! The Eighties are upon us.

I knew my high school fashions were considering re-surfacing last year when I began catching early glimpses of puffer vests on teenagers around town. Now, with more kids looking like Madonna-as-Material-Girl, Eighties Style is having a serious fashion renaissance.

As evidence, I present Jelly Shoes. A fashion choice in that I actually never indulged in the last time around - having at that point in my teenagedom already have moved into kitten-heeled pumps and the plotting of how to get a pair of sturdy-heeled (cobblestone appropriate) knee-high boots for my 17th birthday.

But I digress. Probably out of an avoidance instinct.

Oh yes, Jellies. Always a style that makes me think of 8-year old girls in pink shirts and floral embroidered jeans; perhaps because they have not gone out of fashion with that age group? I simply wonder how grown ladies pull these off. But hey, if it helps you keep a sense of play in your life, go for it.

So, while these are obviously not a trend that is calling to me, perhaps there is something in here that some of you folks reading will find to your liking. One thing I can tell you, designers this time out have not limited their styles to sparkly pink jelly flats and flip-flops.

We have sandals (including the still-hot gladiator silhouette):

GIvenchy ‘Lace-Up Jelly’ $170 at Saks.com (also in Orange, Olive, Fuchsia and Black at Shopbop.com)

Jimmy Choo ‘Jelly Thong Sandals’ $175 at Saks.com

Kors by Michael Kors ‘Shane Jelly Toe-Ring Sandal’ $72 at Shopbop.com ($69 at Zappos)

See by Chloe ‘Flat Jelly Sandals’ $125 in yellow or black at Saks.com (also at Shopbop in Yellow, Orange, Green, and Violet)

Ballet Flats:

Cesare Paciotti ‘Ballerina 20000′ in Red, Purple, White, and Black. $128.09 $189at Zappos.com

Tory Burch ‘Jelly Reva Ballet Flats’ $95 in blue or coral at Saks.com (also available in Pink, Yellow, Brown and Black at Shopbop)

Melissa ‘Ultragirl Peep-Toe Jelly Flats’ $70 in Pink, Blue and Black at Saks.com

Melissa ‘Campana Corallo Jelly Ballet Flats’ $60 at Saks.com

Melissa ‘Campana Corallo Webbed  Jelly Flats’ $80 at Saks.com

Sneakers:

Kenzo Shoes Lace-up Jelly Sneakers in pink, yellow, white, and black. $80 at Shopbop.com

Oxfords (And you thought that this trend was on the way out!):

Mellisa ‘Joy and Alexander Herchcovitch Jelly Oxford’ in Gold or Black. $100 at Saks.com

And, of course, Heels:

Melissa ‘Jelly Peep-Toe T-Strap Wedge’ $100 at Saks.com.

Oh, and in case you are wincing just a little bit at the not-so-humble prices being charged for colorful pieces of molded plastic (or is it flubber?) there should be Payless versions soon enough.

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Though the assorted Fashion Weeks for Fall 2009 have come and gone, I have decided to do one more designer specific post. Louis Vuitton (which is to say, Marc Jacobs and his specific brand of Frenchified crazy) showed at the very end of Paris Fashion Week. Initially, I was not going to post about the shoes, but then, like the Kylie Minogue song of the the same name, I just can’t get ‘em out of my head. And since misery loves company, here’s a bit of my obsession comin’ atcha.

The source of my obsession are the “hourglass heels” (see my fancy made up wordage?) on each shoe.

Exhibit A:

This pair in particular eez so Freaaaanch, non? With the velvet bow, red and black motif, beads, and a bit of sparkle, that there is a can-can dancer reincarnated as a shoe. But I digress. So often, the heels that designers stick on shoes are pure shock value all the way. Often, it’s fabulous. Don’t stop, designers! You would leave we shoebloggers with significantly less to write about. However, here is an unusual heel on an awesome shoe that seems like it would help rather than hurt the wearer. I mean just look at it. Increased groundage-to-heel ratio = more practical shoe. And that’s jut a mathematical fact.

The other thing I think is awesome about these is this entire power play scenario that I developed in my head where you got bigger beads on your hourglass shoe if you were a more “popular” model. Like if a model books a big job, she gets to trade up her bead size or something. It’s like in middle school, where the popular girls had progressively fancier and fancier friendship bracelets. But that’s clearly just in my head OR IS IT? Look here:

HER BEADS ARE BIGGER THAN MINE!

Sheesh. Now I’m not digressing, I’m regressing.

This delightful motif also showed in the super dramatic thigh-high boots that Marc showed. Some were metallic, some had full-on patent leather lace up (dominatrix whip sold separately). Here are some more photos.

I WANT the white ones more than I want to breathe. OK, that’s a smidgen of an overstatement. So do these babies get you guys all choked up inside the way they do me? Or have I finally gone off the deep end. (Mind you, positive answers to both questions will be accepted.)

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