Wedding season sparkle

It’s wedding season here in India. Every year between late September and January – to avoid the monsoon rains and the summer heat – about 10,000 marriages take place across the country. In the equity world, the wedding season has always been a big factor in the price of gold. It’s traditional for an Indian bride to be draped in gold jewelry, while family and friends give gold coins and bars as gifts to the newlyweds. (Therefore, dear shoe lovers, if you are planning on investing in bullion or bling, avoid doing so between August and October: over the past decade the price of gold stocks in this trading period has risen by an average of 7.2%.)

Even if you are not getting hitched or showered in the yellow stuff, in India it is your duty to add to the communal shine. New clothes, obviously, and (happy sigh) new shoes. And what shoes! Silken Swarovski-crystal-encrusted heels are de riguer, the more sparkly and colourful the better. The branch of Metro shoe chain on Colaba Causeway had a sale recently – one of those crazy ones where piles of slippers, mules, sandals and stilettos are heaped up on trestles causing a footwear feeding frenzy. As you can see from these pix, I made out like a 6-year-old Barbie-loving bandit.  

I got these delicate strappy sandals (above and below) in two almost identical colours because I just couldn’t choose between them. The aqua-er ones are a perfect match for “Toronto” from Herôme’s World Inspired Colours collection – the nail varnish I am obsessed with this year – while the bluer ones are a perfect match for, um, my eyes.

What a man’s gotta Choo

Think Jimmy Choos and you probably think sparkly super-high stiletto heels and Tamara Mellon – the brand’s former president and stylish ambassador – wearing them. Well, that’s not the whole story anymore. Tamara M may have left to start her own label, but a whole new clientele has discovered the charms of Choo: men.

A couple of weeks ago The Financial Times ran an article on the new demand for more adventurous (read “blinging”) male footwear, and the customers willing to pay designer prices. It pointed out that in recent years trainers have got men (well, some of them) accustomed to colourful, statement shoes, and in 2011 Prada’s platform trainers and brogues were a cult hit. Christain Louboutin opened dedicated menswear stores in New York and Los Angeles this summer, with Dover Street in London next up in the autumn. Jimmy Choo has opened a menswear store in the Burlinton Arcade, and in June Brit rapper Tinie Tempah wore Choo “Sloane” slippers to the inaugural event for London Collections: Men.

Image from Vogue.co.uk via 00o00.blogspot.in

Excellent choice, Mr. Tempah. Here are those same “Sloane” glitter-finish leather slippers taking a breather at a GQ India photoshoot recently. The gentleman who sported them for us looks resplendent (take my word for it – the issue’s not out yet.) The price: £395. The look: a million bucks.

Cinderella does Fashion’s Night Out

Vogue Fashion’s Night Out 2012 kicked off yesterday in New York, London and Moscow, and this evening it’s Indias turn, with FNO starting an hour ago in New Delhi. Sadly your ShoeBlogger is Cinderella-ing it in Mumbai, following the hot shopping action on Twitter and moping. But wait! What’s this, hanging on a rail outside the Vogue India fashion cupboard?  

It is a pair of Swarovski-encrusted six-inch (15-cm) heels with black satin peep-toes, shiny gold ankle-straps, and a 2-inch platform, by Gina! And they are just my size! The fairy godmother of the fashion cupboard waves her wand and pronounces, “You SHALL go to the FNO ball! Now for heavens sakes turn off that computer, love, and get some slap on, it’s Friday night!”

 

 OK, I made that last bit up. But I didn't make up these glass slippers. They also come in red and black, see below. Swoon.

A tale of two satins

I’m not very good at haggling, so while wandering through markets is always fun I am quite capable of coming away empty-handed, pursued by the cajolery or heckles of unsatisfied vendors. However, weaving through Mumbai’s Fashion Street last Saturday, I had to make an exception for these adorable little satin ballet flats. The stylised leaf-print is very Orla Kiely, but the price (eventually agreed on) was less than that of an Orla Kiely shoe lace. 

Satin shoes are wildly impractical. I always forget this and wear them to weddings, where they get ruined by wine stains, grass stains, or – pointy heels in particular – sinking into damp lawns. But, butterflies of the footwear world that they are, while they last they are just so charming and winsome. They appeal to my (quite deeply buried) ladylike streak.

Of course, not all satin is ladylike. Satin has its own trashy side, as evidenced by the 5-inch (12-cm) stilettos below. Frankly speaking, these are – how shall I put it? – stripper heels.

I bought them in London back in July, in a process that was even more hassle than haggling with a Bombay street trader. I first spotted them in Debenhams in Westfield, excellently discounted in the sale, but it took two visits before I could actually score a shop assistant to er, assist me. And then it turned out that the second shoe in the pair was missing. The apologetic assistant took my number and promised to call me if/when she located the missing shoe. No call came. But there is nothing like being denied a left foot to summon forth a shoe lovers fighting spirit. Cue a mission to the Oxford Street branch of Debenhams, a whole new bunch of shop assistants to harass, and, finally, triumph.

The strippers are from Dune’s Head Over Heels range, a label I’m a big fan of (below: check out the blue zebra blue ponyskin zebra-print numbers I bought at HOH in July 2010,  which interestingly prefigure Balenciaga’s 2012 collection.) 

Left, blue zebra-print pony skin heels Head Over Heels by Dune, summer 2010. Right, blue zebra-print heels by Balenciaga, summer 2012. 

I am looking at the stilettos in the flesh (as it were) right now. The fabric is matt-finished satin, with this gorgeous pattern of pink and forest green fronds and feathers. The moment I saw them I was smitten, not least because they are perfect with W.I.C. “Toronto” by Herôme, my pedicure colour of the year. I had to have them, even with nary a wedding on the calendar. (And anyway, who wears stripper heels to a wedding?)

 

Monsoon menswear: the ultimate wet-look

Dear shoe lovers, after several weeks of loaf(er)ing about in Western Europe, your Shoeblogger is back in the saddle(Oxfords) and keen to get back to work. Work for the next little while takes us to Mumbai, and for starters we’ve got some really rather marvellous footwear for the gentlemen friends of ShoeClub.

Now, I haven’t checked what the weather is up to in London, New York or Moscow, but I can tell you what it’s doing here in Maximum City: it’s raining. It is monsoon season, which means that several times a day progress throughout the city is interrupted by sudden violent downpours. Generally this means being caught in flipflops or sandals and getting a filthy footbath as the detritus of the street washes over your ankles. At this point, one wishes one had worn something a bit less... exposed. A bit more like these gorgeous Just Cavalli black patent loafers, for example.

Their discreet heel and chunky sole raise them above the muck, while their high uppers with the fringed leather tab provide protection from splashes and drips. And they’re so shiny that a bit of rain will just look like meteorological accessorising.

Ditto the Gucci three-hole patent lace-ups below. Very understated, but very luxurious (check out the quilted insoles.) And of course, if they’re gonna get wet then wet-look is 100% practical too.