First Footing 2012

According to Scottish tradition (and Wikipedia) the first person to cross the threshold of a home on New Year’s Day – the “first foot” – is a bringer of good fortune for the coming year. “The first foot is traditionally a tall, dark-haired male; a female or fair-haired male are in some places regarded as unlucky” (apparently this is a throwback to the Viking days when blond strangers arriving on your doorstep meant trouble.) ShoeClub’s first footing of 2012 comes courtesy of German-born (and dark-haired) designer Burak Uyan and his tall, elegant, silver strappy sandals (below). 

A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Vienna, Uyan began his career in Paris, at Givenchy and Giambattista Valli. His own line was launched for spring 2011. As Holli Rogers, buying director at Net-a-Porter, put it (in an interview in WWD), “Uyan’s designs have an architectural sensibility with the perfect balance of elegance and modernity.” They therefore encapsulate one of the biggest trends of the new season: Art Deco.

Image thanks to Panoramio.com

Linear, symmetrical, architectural, graphic – spring/summer 2012 is all about taking your style cues from the Chrysler Building (above). 

These white leather ankle boots from Chanel (above), with their little bulb-shaped heels and zig-zag patent applique (Aztec patterns are a key ref in Art Deco), could almost have stepped out of the pages of Vogue’s July 1928 number, and Hoyningen-Huené’s image of two bathers sharing a cigarette (below).

Image thanks to ana-lee.livejournal

Back to Wikipedia: “Although many design movements have political or philosophical beginnings or intentions, Art Deco was purely decorative.” 

Art Deco 2012, on the other hand, is positively groaning with intellectual references. For instance, the inspiration for Fendi’s collection (below) was Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian neurologist born in 1909 and winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986.      

According to Tim Blanks on Style.com, “Silvia Venturini Fendi felt she [RLM] was the perfect embodiment of the very particular type of Milanese woman she [SVF] wanted to celebrate with the new Fendi collection: serious, practical, possibly academic.” 

Which is also a pretty good description of Eileen Gray (below), the Irish modernist designer and architect born in 1878. 

Images thanks to thebluelantern and thedesignmuseum

Gray’s “E-1027” house, built on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin (and designed to share with her lover, Jean Badovici, the editor of L’Architecture Vivante, fact fanatics) is a landmark piece of modernist architecture. It would also make the perfect setting for showing off those gorgeous gold-soled Fendi mules, perhaps whilst channelling exiled Russian princess Natalia Paley in this Lucien Lelong dress (below, shot for for Vogue in 1931, by Hoyningen-Huené again) and sipping a Sidecar (Cointreau, lemon juice, cognac.)

Image thanks to billyjane.tumblr.com

On that note, I wish you “Tchin Tchin,” as Princess Natalia would doubtless have said, and a very Happy “Sh-n-oe” Year!

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

Princesses, pop stars and fairy-tale footwear

Patience, dear shoe fans: keep scrolling and you will eventually get to the toe of this 8-inch (20cm) ballerina heel, created by Christian Louboutin for the Royal Ballet... 

This skyscraper flat was one of the exhibits in the Couture section of Shoes for Show: the Sculptural Art of High Heels, a great exhibition which took place in London for just four days at the start of November. (Take a look at last week’s post here for an intro to the exhibition and the Innovation section, featuring London’s exciting new generation of shoe designers.)
Christian Louboutin also figured under the heading of shoes commissioned for the Catwalk. The gold studded-and-spiked heels below were created for the Rodarte f/w 2008 collection and swiftly became a favourite with celebs like Janet Jackson and Victoria Beckham.

Image thanks to KuwaitStyle,com

When it comes to pop stars, of course, “Shoes for Show” pretty much says it all. This silver and gold glam-rock boot with perspex heel (below) was designed by Terry de Havilland for Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters...

...and Gareth Pugh designed these graphic/futuristic gold boots (below) worn by Beyoncé in her “(Girls) Run the World” video.

Image thanks to myshoebags

More gold, and another musical connection: Rupert Sanderson created these “Atlas” sandals, to be worn by Princess Amneris in the Royal Opera 2010 production of Verdi’s Aida.

French department store Printemps commissioned Nicholas Kirkwood to make these charm-laden stilettos (below) in 2010. They were part of a window display in the Boulevard Haussman shop during Paris Fashion Week, celebrating Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland.

Nicholas Kirkham also designed the amazing platform confections below, for Meadham Kirchoff’s s/s 2012 catwalk collection. While on display they look like something that should sit on top of a particularly princessy dressing-table, your Shoeblogger has already seen them in an upcoming fashion shoot and can confirm that – with a little judicious wardrobe-juggling – they are surprisingly wearable.

Where would shoe fashion be without Daphne Guinness? (Several inches closer to the ground for a start.) One of the most amazing pieces in the exhibition was this towering purple lurex heel-less shoe by Nina Ricci, lent by the Hon. Daphne.

Daphne Guinness, in Nina Ricci shoes, with Valentino Garavani.
Image thanks to fashette.wordpress.com

Shoes for Show: the Sculptural Art of High Heels was organised by e-commerce site Javari.co.uk. Curator Shonagh Marshall commissioned sculptor Jamie Bowler to design a set that would reflect the complex three-dimensional process of shoe design. Sadly there are no immediate plans to tour the exhibition, but it was such a big hit with visitors (and with bloggers) that we hope to see it on the road yet. Fingers crossed...