She’s in fashion

As the days get shorter and darker, it gets harder and harder to drag ourselves out of bed and into work. Luckily for a shoe lover, the girls in the Vogue office can always be counted on to make the day merrier and brighter. These beautiful, classic black patent Prada pumps (above and below), for instance, would put a spring in anyone’s step. They belong to beauty queen Rita, whose Valentino heels and Massimo Dutti Chelsea boots have previously guested on this blog.

For a shot of super-cool style, check out fashion writer Nana in her “Serena” platform bootees by Loeffler Randall (below). 

You may have spotted Katya Z’s leopard print last month on the blog. Her “Anouck” Chelsea boots from Alexander Wang (below) have smart leather ribbed sides and braided leather collars at the back, but of course the standout detail is their metal hinge-effect heels. They flash across the office as Katya darts in and out of the fashion cupboard.

Two (of many) things to love about fashionista Liza: her beautiful smile and her gorgeous Burberry wooden wedges (below). 

Stylist Elena B has an eye for killer details (the Attilio Giusti Leombruni ponyskin brogues we blogged in October for example). Love these cobalt blue Giuseppe Zanotti peep-toe heels with the zips up the back – and love the way she teams them with seamed stockings.

I had to include these (below) because sometimes all you have to do is look down to feel like things are looking up.
Representing the art department, your Shoeblogger in Corso Como bootees. These are baby-soft black leather (so soft in fact that you can only pull them on with the aid of a shoehorn). The heels are metal spikes, cup-shaped under the sole, and buckled with a matte leather harness around the ankle. J’adore.

But my favourite look of the winter so far has to be this (below).
Elena S’s Miu Miu leopard-print ponyskin platform Mary Janes earned their own blog post back in the summer. Here, prefiguring the s/s 2012 trend for print on print (it’s going to be huge) she rocks them with tiger-striped hose. And the effect is electric. Anna Dello Russo eat your heart out.

Friends with benefits

It is quite true that women dress for other women. “I wore these because I knew they’d make you smile,” said my dear friend Miss Lovely when she turned up for lunch on Thursday in a pair of marvelous glitter ankle boots (above). With their smart Cuban heels and zips up both sides, they are a neat take on the Giuseppe Zanotti glitter bootees below – but without the $895 price tag. 

In fact these are “Ambush” ankleboots from the a/w 2011 collection by Topshop, and a perfect pre-Christmas pick-me-up on a wintery afternoon in London’s West End.

Lovely is the owner of vintage fashion website Lovely’s Vintage Emporium, so an eye for beautiful clothes and canny shopping sense come with the territory. She describes the website as a “modern, trends-led, magazine-like approach to vintage.” And she currently has a section called Christmas Gifts that curates a really clever selection of jewellery, accessories, and vintage fashion pieces from the 1930s onwards. LVE ships internationally, so if you need suggestions for truly original gift ideas, check it out (I have my eye on the 1970s Yves Saint Laurent bottle green t-bar heels...) 
lovelysvintageemporium.com

A splash of burgundy

Image thanks to fashion.telegraph.co.uk

The British fashion press got quite intoxicated this season. “It’s time to hit the claret,” declared The Telegraph in a story, above, styled by Charlie Harrington and photographed by Rachel Pierce. (The shoes are LK Bennett, BTW: £195.)

Elie Tahari a/w 2011 image thanks to style.com

“From deep maroon to autumnal rust through to burgundy and claret, rich muted reds are undoubtedly the core colour palette of AW11,” agreed Red magazine (appropriately enough.) “Burgundy is massive this season,” added Imogen Fox in The Guardian. “But we’re calling it ‘boozy’. It sounds that bit sexier, less schooly.”



Ah, yes: the “schooly” factor. “If your school uniform was burgundy then I am afraid you are not going to like this,” Imogen cautioned. During a Black Friday moment (it took place in Moscow, on Saturday afternoon, in a crowd of one: no pepper spray was involved) I found myself falling inordinately and inexplicably in love with a maroon wool v-neck sweater. Inexplicably because it was the absolute spit of my old school uniform.

There is also something undeniably, er, uniform about the small collection of wine-coloured shoes your Shoeblogger has somehow managed to acquire over the years. Two pairs of mock-croc claret pumps? Yes, but they work so well with a pleated skirt and a wooly pullover... 



Happily, in London this week the burgundy trend manifested in a variety of styles. On Portobello Road Friday morning I spotted these plum-coloured knee-high boots (above): Asos I believe. 

The maroon velvet trainers with grosgrain laces (above) are from Jigsaw. 

Menswear, too, has soaked up some wine. In Seven Dials I admired this guy’s thick-soled artichoke-and-black oxford high-tops. “Aldo,” their owner told me. “There’s a branch right around the corner.”

What a coincidence! Just the day before your Shoeblogger had fallen for this pair of Aldo fake-snake platform wedge pumps (above) in bordeaux, black and cream. Hardly schooly at all – unless in a bad-girl-smoking-and-talking-to-boys-at-the-bus-stop kind of way.

I also tried – but did not buy – the gorgeous wet look claret pumps, above, from Dune. I mean, how many pairs of shiny, wine-y, round-toed, block-heeled pumps can a girl justify, really?

Dune was where one of my all-time fave pairs of maroon shoes originated. I have had these beautiful leather-and-suede strappy heels with enamelled uppers, above, for years. I suspect that if I’d turned up at the school gates in these the nuns would’ve taken a dim view. On the other hand, I also love the two-tone Enzo Angiolini Mary Janes below, of which surely even Miss Jean Brodie would have approved.

As Muriel Spark/Jean Brodie said, “Give me a girl  at an impressionable age and she is mine for life.” Apparently the same can be said for making her wear burgundy. Cheers, dears!

Maggie Smith in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie,
image thanks to oscarfan