Afternoon delight

It’s the last day of June, a glorious sunny Saturday, and your shoe blogger has spent it in a darkened cinema. Watching the Met Opera perform Wagner’s Das Rheingold, as you do. (Seemed like a good idea when I was booking it, two months ago.) After several hours of Sturm, Drang, and Bryn Terfel with a Phil Oakey-style fringe, a change of pace is called for. So thank the lord I’m stepping out onto King’s Road, to be dazzled not only by the sunshine but also by some very fabulous footwear. 

For starters, these wonderful blue suede wedges (above.) The girl wearing them laughed, “It’s a day for photography!” Hardly surprising she was getting snapped, as she had a very cool look going on (note the black pedi.)

More great suede wedges, above, this time with from Aldo. Shoehorn has just been admiring her candy pink nail polish, and noting that it’s an unusual but very successful choice with cyan, magenta and olive. A flash of cork on the soles, a neatly buckled ankle strap – altogether a very sharp look for summer in the city.

These blue denim t-bars, above, with black wedge soles, are from Kurt Geiger. A little more covered up, they are still totally on the money for a summer weekend and work brilliantly with her loose light jeans.

I also love these dark navy suede wedges – very simple, very chic, with a classic cherry pedi. “They get more comments than any other shoes I own,” according to their wearer. And where from? Would you believe it – Clarks.

From the great British high street to designer central: these wonderful plaited tan leather and raffia wedges(above) are Michael Kors. Very sophisticated for an upmarket Saturday look.

More tan leather, above – and these are also Clarks. The wedge heel with broad stitching and wide wrap-straps give them an old-fashioned glamour, a bit fifties starlet on holidays, especially teamed with deep wine-toned nail colour.

Stylish wedges were clearly the order of the day, but not the only game in town. These sage green patent slingbacks with wooden platforms and stack heels are from Sergio Rossi. They looked completely brilliant with khaki linen parachute pants. 

In the navy

Long distance relationships are tough. When you are in, say, Moscow, and the object of your affections is nearly sixteen hundred miles and four time zones away in London, it’s – well, it’s frustrating. Especially when the object is beautiful and stylish and very now.

Like these navy patent kitten heels with the gold ankle chain and the little red anchor, which I shot at home in London last week, and which, sadly, are still in London due to the sheer volume of shoes currently bulging out of Shoe Closet East (there are seven pairs under my desk as I write. I hardly dare open the wardrobe these days.) 

Versace (left) and Issa, s/s 21012. Images thanks to Style.com

The sea and all things oceanic is one of spring/summer 2012’s big fashion trends. At Versace, bandeau tops and skirts were bedecked with starfish and shells, while at Issa the harbour at Rio de Janeiro (complete with statue of Christ the Redeemer) was splashed over tunics and dresses. 

Of course, the life aquatic is a perennial style favourite, and my nautical kitten heels are practically vintage. I bought them years ago at Shelly’s in Oxford Circus (that dates them – and me: Shelly’s hasn't had a store in Oxford Circus for ages. Which is a shame, as it used to be a great place for interesting, unusual, and good quality footwear). They are by Miss L Fire (I am pleased to say the label is still going strong and has a very cute website, here). 

The thing I remember most clearly about buying these is that a very smart Japanese woman in gorgeous black cigarette pants was buying a pair (in black) at the same time. I was so taken with how marvelous they looked on her that I hardly bothered to look at my own reflection.

Still, I have never regretted buying them. I have also never regretted buying these French navy patent cork-heeled pumps (below, from Aldo) despite the fact that they do that thing patent occasionally does, of cutting off the circulation to one’s toes. 

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

Art vs Fashion, everybody wins

Friday night: to Garage, Moscow’s Centre for Contemporary Culture, aka the hippest art gallery in town, situated in an old bus depot and run by the very beautiful, very cool, and very cosmopolitan Dasha Zhukova. The occasion: the launch of Russian Vogue’s June issue, the Art+Fashion Special. In attendance: the great, the good, and the best-dressed of Russia’s modegentsia (hey, hereabouts they still label people ‘intelligentsia’: it’s about time there was a fashion equivalent.) It was such a stylish occasion even the paparazzi were dolled up – cf. our young celebrity smudger, below, in her pink satin messenger-of-the-gods style ballet flats.

Below: first points go to the Artists, in this case Sasha and her fabulous padded peep-toe ‘Tron Legacy’ bootees from Opening Ceremony. (Her oj pedi echoed the amazing orange dress she was wearing.)

More sunny D: Polina’s fluorescent orange sandals, with their thick velco-snap straps, 5-inch heels, and amazing rope behind-the-ankle ties drew attention from across the gallery. And no wonder: $650 worth of neon Giuseppe Zanotti for Christopher Kane will stop anyone in their tracks. I die. 

Sticking with the Zs: this is just to show that great looks don’t have to cost big bucks, even in Mockba. The very artsy strappy heels below are from Zara.

One for the Fashion team: Voguette Anna, below, looking super-chic in black suede Jil Sander, nicely paired with a metallic blue pedi.

This season, though, black is taking a back seat to colour. Loved these teal and tan patent sandals (below), especially with perfect siren-red toes.

So far in this blog I’ve mentioned Ds, Zs, and now it’s time for a G. That’s the price tag on these beautiful red strappy canvas platforms, worn by Natalya of fashion brand Kova & T. They have a 6-inch wooden heel, a pineapple leaf gold figure on the toes, and are from Charlotte Olympia. Swoon.   

From dizzy designer heights to the highest of high-street heels: Voguette Olesya looked a million dollars in these skyscaper black platforms. They’ve got a touch of the forties Hollywood diva about them – and they’re from Aldo. 

ShoeClub followers may have noticed that I have a bit of a pash for red stilettos – arguably the sexiest shoe ever invented and every bit as delicious with jeans as with ballgowns. They don’t come better than this pair (below): a very simple, classic, sexy pair of red patent stilettos by D&G and worn by Vogue fashionista Natalya. Altogether an excellent example of the art of fashion.

Drill, baby, drill

Think "Summer" and what classic footwear springs to mind? (And it's not "None," no matter how much we all long to go barefoot in the park this weekend.) It is the espadrille.

Over to our friends at Wikipedia for a moment: "Espadrilles are normally flat but sometimes high heeled shoes originating from the Pyrenees. The jute rope sole is the defining characteristic of an espadrille. The term espadrille is French and derives from the Catalan name for the shoes, espardenya, from esparto, a tough, wiry Mediterranean grass used in making rope. Espadrilles have been made in Catalonia since the 14th century at least, and there are Catalan shops still in existence that have been making espadrilles for over a century."

"Espadrilles became fashionable in USA in the 1940s. Lauren Bacall's character in the 1948 movie Key Largo wore ankle-laced espadrilles [thanks to fashiongonethrifty for LB pix]. The style was revived in the 1980s, due to the success of Miami Vice - the shoe was worn by Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson)."

Sadly, your Shoe Blogger is currently stationed half a world away from the Florida Keys, and spending summer in the office to boot. But look what we found last week... 

These black leather wedge-heel espadrilles are the perfect combination of work-day smart and holiday cool. They are from Aldo (a Canadian company launched by Aldo Bensadoun in Montreal in the early 1970s, fact-lovers). The leather is soft and stretchy. And, to borrow a metaphor from Bogey and Bacall in Key Largo, they went down a storm in the office. 

PS As seen also at Baldinini, the 'designer' version, at a designer price...