NEW SEASON, NEW OBSESSIONS

We have finally entered in to the season where the sale stock of the past collections is thinning out and the fresh, new bright spring summer merchandise is making its way in to the stores.

As you might have read in my previous blog post (The Red Sole) I went to see the SS12 collection launch in Louboutin Mount Street, but at the time felt like a diabetic in a sweet shop, I wasn’t allowed to take any of the shoes away with me, and could only put my name down for the shoes and purchase as and when they arrived in store. Boring. Plus I’m a impulse buyer so that don’t work with me.

So, I have a shoe obsession. I openly admit it. 

There is something about that penetrating killer heel, the way it causes disturbance wherever it roams, with the click-click of it’s killer point causing hearts to race and those with hardwood floors to shudder.

It is the ultimate badge of status, authority and sex appeal for grown-up girls, it requires sexual maturity to deal with the commotion it causes.

Hence as soon as a new season is starting to come in, I start acting like a recovering alcoholic, drawn to the glittering new facade of the shop windows, like its drops of golden champagne.

I was walking down Sloane Street the other day when I approached the Giuseppe Zanotti Design store. As a alcoholic start feeling the withdrawal when seeing someone have a drink, I felt a tinge in my stomach. My mind was telling me not to go in. Repeatedly. My heart was telling me, come on Z, you only live once, enjoy it!!

Needless to say, as always, I followed my heart.

I walked straight past the sale and up the stairs to the new arrivals, and fell in love.

The name is 'Adele'. I love the way GZ & Louboutin romanticises their shoes by giving them cute little names referring to their personality traits...

Anyway, the shoe my heart had stopped for were a pair of black suede open-toe booties. It’s curvy, body-shaped silhouette left me astonished. Think Lady Gaga. Yes, those ones. They are crazy. 150 cm. I had to try them and in doing so tried one of the most comfortable shoes I have had for a long time (only ones that come near are my Louboutin Highness, more on those later). By the looks of them it looks like I will topple over as they have no visible heel, but the design of these, these works of art, are so sturdy that I could probably run in them. Not that I ever would. For other reasons.

I instantly imagined at least 5 outfits I could wear them with; my skinny Jitrois leather trousers, skinny jeans, pencil skirts as well as shorter skirts... Now, I have a technique if I want to convince myself I need a pair of shoes- if i can think of 5 outfits i can get use out of them for, I should buy them. So I did. And the love story continues.

Resemblance to Adele..?

Giuseppe Zanotti have really changed since its re-launch in 2007 and I thank the shoe god for this. They are a serious threat to my Loubi collection this season. I even love the trainers!

My eye are on these beauties. They look slightly like the Louboutin Highness and if the Highness came in this colour I would get them instead, but they don’t so here goes.

Only pre-order so far

Another pair I will die to lay my hands on are these python T-bar wedges. A bit like my black ones but enough difference not to duplicate. Just imagining it with a nice white summer dress and a serious tan come summer. Yes. They are a must have. (I’m sure I can come up with another 4 outfits to justify them.)

It also helps that Giuseppe Zanotti is about £200 cheaper than a pair of Louboutins as a general.

T-bar pythons

So, what has Louboutin got to offer this season to compete with Zanotti. Well, the shiny, red-lacquered sole does sell itself quite well however he never gets complacent. 

The SS'12 ad campaign for Louboutin

The spring summer ’12 collection takes inspiration from the 1940‘s right through to the 1970‘s. This collection of statement heels, which are definitely not for the retiring, includes metallic brights, Mexican beaded, rock glam studded and bejewelled Bollywood. What is there not to love?

Having a pair of nude shoes in your shoe wardrobe is essential, it not only elongates your legs but flatters an otherwise already colourful, bright outfit.

So, this season we have the Louboutin Highness, they are basically the Louboutin Daffodils but with open toe, they are otherwise identical. These are elongating the legs on a different level with their 160cm in height. And with them being so comfortable they are definitely my best buy of the season, so far.

Louboutin Highness

Another pair I would like to get my hands on, for the sheer fun factor, are these spike Louboutin’s, I can’t make my mind up about the very ‘out there’ turquoise and cork coloured ones or the more ‘suttle’ black ones with gold spikes. Both of them are a worthy purchase, there will never be anything like them. Not to mention the value for money- you get a pair of hot shoes as well as a great self defence weapon. They could really cause some damage!

My heart says these...

but my mind says these...

Moving on to the Pigalle. In my opinion the most sexy shoe of the Louboutin collection. Its slim 120cm heel makes your foot steep as a ballerinas due to lack of platform at the front of the shoe. So, not very comfortable, and especially not for me. My feet are of the wide sort. Yes, I would even say they are fat. Whilst this shoe is very slim and sexy. The two really don’t go together but I refuse like a fat girl in leggings to accept this. Every season there is a new style or new colour out. So far I have had the black patent ones (my feet were swelling over), the nude patent (worn out to the point where my feet can sense the gravel underneath), the pretty spiky ‘Lucifer’ Pigalles pictured (there is a reason for that name, trust me) the new and more comfortable Pigalle Plato with a small platform, in fierce red and my latest Pigalle purchase; the Pigalle Duvet 120cm in nude with gold capped toes and heels. Beauties all of them. Just not on my feet. So why is it, when I am so aware of this, I am still looking to get this seasons Pigalles- the Pigalle Pollock. 

A definite classic, the patent Pigalle

Pigalle Duvet

Lucifer's

They are splashed in colour and will no doubt look amazing with a light pair of jeans and a off the shoulder tee on a warm summer day (obviously not in the UK) topped off with a great tan (obviously fake). The new bright neon colours are also fantastic. I shall continue to live in a state of oblivion when it comes to Pigalle. Love is blind as they say.

Pigalle Pollock

I strolled into the Shoe Boudoir in Harrods today as I had my ways past. My eyes were drawn to the new season table like moths to a light and instantly spotted in a kind of Hallelujah moment (swear I could hear harps and angels singing, or maybe it was Harrods music system) on the table the shoes I have been desperately trying to track down for what feels like months. We are probably talking weeks. 

The Lady Peep Spikes in gold. Again, one of my more comfortable shoes with them having a open toe which means my fat feet and Shrek toes have space to breathe.

Shoe porn

There was no hesitation, no moments thinking about what outfits I had to go with them, I couldn’t get my card out fast enough and didn’t breathe until it had gone through and the green bag was in my hands.

Now, Jimmy Choo disappoints me this season. And they have been doing so well lately! They do have one gem though. This pair is simply a work of art; the flower corsage detailing makes this such a statement shoe. However. Yes there is a however. You need super skinny legs to go with it. My legs are muscly and shapely (i like to think) which is why i suit so well in the likes of the Louboutin Highness. I would look like a bad version of Miss Piggy in these as the corsage really cuts your leg off. I cant even be oblivious to this fact. But they are oh so beautiful to look at, and so is the price tag at a mere £1,800.

Beautiful to look at...on others

So these were my favourites so far by the designers i like to keep my eye on.

Though there are many more important things in life I still believe that one needs passion and I have found mine. 

I hope I have helped you find yours too, and please do let me know if there are any spectacular beauties that I might have missed in my search in the spring summer mayhem.

x

10 DRESSES THAT CHANGED MY WORLD

As fashion is moving away from the throwaway to a collection of exquisite and considered purchases, clothes become invested with greater emotional meaning and memories, precious heirlooms to be handed down rather than disposed of after a weekends wear.

These 10 dresses I have chosen, are in my eyes, the most beautiful and exquisite designs, some which hold history and reflect important changes in the world and some which with today's intricate materials and design, can make any woman stand out from a crowd and be a star on her own.

I hope you enjoy 

10. The Goddess Dress

Madeleine Vionnet

The catastrophe of World War 1 in 1930 brought about a radical change in the way gender, class and creativity was seen; there was a new found freedom in the air that enabled a few to break away from convention and explore new horizons. One of these was Madeleine Vionnet (1876-1975), a french designer, who looked back to to ancient Greece for inspiration to liberate women from the constraints of corsets and padding.

Vionnet’s bias-cut dresses allowed fabric to float freely around the body, enhancing natural curves and accentuating the female form.

Simple and spontaneous as the Vionnet style appears, it entailed meticulous attention to detail, from the pattern cutting to the properties of the fabric used.

Vionnet is because of this often credited with establishing the bias cut as one of the staples of modern fashion.

9. The New Look

Another break through after yet another war, this time World War 2, was the blast of optimism that resuscitated the Paris Couture industry and outlined an aesthetic for the decade of economical and social renewal that was to follow.

This fashion phenomenon, launched by French designer Christian Dior (1905- 1957) in 1947 endured well in to the 1950’s defining a new era of defiance, resilience and hope.

Dior’s belief was that the public was now ready to embrace a new, luxurious and life-affirming style and his designs were outstanding in that they were more voluptuous than the boxy, fabric conserving the shapes of recent World War 2 styles.

Dior

Soft shoulders, a waspy waist and the indulgent volume of a free full flowing skirt was exactly what Dior’s Femme Fatale wanted. He was a master at creating shapes and silhouettes, his looks employed fabrics lines with percale, boned, bustier style bodies and wasp waisted designs which made the material flow from the waist giving the model a very curvaceous form.

Dior’s couture house was inundated with orders from international celebrity clients such as  Rita Hayward. A style was born, Paris was back on the fashion map and Dior set a pre-decent by selling exclusive rights to individual designs, enabling the New Look to be manufactured internationally as a worldwide brand.

8. Marilyn Monroe’s The Seven Year Itch dress

The glorious cinematic moment when Marilyn Monroe’s figure hugging halterneck dress flies up as she stands above a subway vent established Travilla (1920-1990) as a catalyst i the creation of an icon. He was one of several contract designers working for Twentieth Century Fox at the time. Slipping past the repressive morality of the times, this scene was a cheeky gesture of defiance that could only have been pulled off by one of the world’s brightest and biggest stars.

The footage of Monroe’s billowing dress had to be shot twice; the first take was outside at Lexington Avenue, NYC and the second on a sound stage. The sound stage footage is the one that made it through as the sound had been rendered useless by the over-exited crowd whistling over Monroe’s see-through panties.

1. 7. The Chanel Suit

Although strictly speaking this is not a dress I do believe it deserves to be mention due to the impact it has had on women’s dress codes throughout the years.

Coco Chanel (1883-1971) first came to prominence during the World War 1, when her simple, elegant designs constructed around ingenious tailoring enabled women to start dressing for themselves again, for their own comfort and pleasure.

Coco Chanel & Romy Schenider in Chanel suits

The classic Chanel-suit, whether it is a 1930’s or a 1960’s suit, or one made recently, the suit had boxy lines, a typical suit also has a braided trim and a slim skirt lined with a gold link chain. It is feminised with gold buttons with the “CC” logo displayed amid them. To make her jackets Chanel used tweed which in these days were very controversial, it was considered a cheap, masculine fabric which belonged in the working class. To make up for that, she often lined the jackets in silk and sometimes even fur.

Ina  sense, wearing a Chanel suit is like wearing a customised ornate costume, made to fit so that when the wearer moves the suit still maintains prefect grace and elegance.

6. The LBD

The “little black dress’ or the LBD has become a genre in its own right. A garment of chic and versatile simplicity that no respectable wardrobe should be without.

Quite simply, the LBD is the essence of chic and the last word in sophistication, the black lines giving a silhouette both luxurious and austere in graphic lines.

It was instigated by Chanel in 1926 and reinterpreted by just about every designer ever since but perhaps its most noticeable manifestation was in Breakfast at Tiffany's, worn by Audrey Hepburn, designed by Givenchy.

The stripped down style means that you can add your own accessories, be it pearls or a signature colour popping scarf, you can make of it what you want. It can be worn from one season to the next, with classic and timeless confidence.

Audrey Hepburn LBD illustration
5. The Wrap Dress

It was the look of the mid- 70’s, a knitted jersey one-piece with a belt. And for it’s designer,  Belgian born Diane Von Furstenberg it would be the springboard to an illustrious career.

The dress is simplicity itself, it is easy to put on, easy to wear, and easy to take off. The offspring of feminism, the garment emerged at a time when women were expressing new confidence in all aspects of life. 

The dress was and still is today, comfortable, forgiving, yet slick and sexy, it is the ultimate ‘go-anywhere’ dress.

Ms Furstenberg

In 1997 Furstenberg relaunched her high-end line and the wrap dress re-emerged and in doing so was reenacted by just about every chain of the high street.

It truly is the dress of our times.

4. The Dynasty Dress

Big houses, big hair and big shoulders, the 1980’s prime time television soap Dynasty provided all this, and more.

The show’s Emmy award nominated designs by Hollywood designer Nolan Miller helped make Dynasty an international institution. Pencil skirts and padded shoulders served as the perfect couture armour as the soaps two leading ladies, Krystle and Alexis fought for commercial and sexual supremacy.

To capitalise on his success, Miller designed a ready-to-wear collection and soon enough wardrobes across the globe was filled with glitz and over the top glamour.

The Dynasty crew

But as much as this look is often more than not ridiculed and laughed at, it’s hard edged, bitchy glamour still has it, as often seen in Donatella Versace’s designs (more about that later).

3. The Bandage Dress

This is, to probably a lot of women's (especially young ones) surprise, a dress from the late 1980’s- Herve Leger ‘the king of cling’ famously binned the over used shoulder pads and blousy fashions of the 80’s and instead created a super sensuous, hour glass silhouette that literally moulded women’s bodies into Olympic perfection. This was Lycra and Spandex rich fabrics standing in for naked flesh.

Mrs Beckham in her tanned,blonde & plastic days

It is said that the idea of the dress came about when Herve Leger was thinking how to best make use of long strips of waste fabrics that he had discarded in a textile factory.

He sow the strips together vertically and added on extra strip where needed to empathise the bust and hips. The dress became a given success and was seen on many of the glamorous and famous faces of that time.

The dress returned to the catwalk in 2007/08 and showcased its enduring power and appeal by yet again being a huge success. 

The high street soon caught on and nowadays it is quite hard to spot the real deal however i do really think it is worth investing in a real classic Herve Leger. 

2. Green Silk Bamboo Print Dress

Long, flowing and barely fastened with a jewelled clasp at the front, this dress is so effortlessly relaxed and so revealing. It could almost be a unravelled version of the previously mentioned Diane Furstenberg wrap dress.

It was originally modelled by the beautiful actress Amber Valetta and later seen worn by Jennifer Lopez (yes, THAT dress) and Geri Halliwell.

Miss Lopez in the "Jungle" Versace dress

With its natural, rich colours and beautiful motif as well as flowing light material it is very reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts movement which romantically tinged nostalgia also offered reassurance to a society faced with unparallelled technological and societal change (we were at the time of design just approaching the new millennium)...

I find the dress so beautifully womanly, really embracing the shape and at the same time looking so powerful. I always look for something similar when I am off somewhere exotic, but nothing beats the original.

1. The Galaxy Dress

My absolute favourite of all times.

The skin tight dress is a sartorial essay in body empowerment with its determination to celebrate and accentuate curves, it was THE dress of 2005. It caught the imagination of the body-confident women of the Naughties and won its designer a worldwide reputation.

French designer Roland Mouret launched his first collection at London Fashion Week in ’98, he produced a series of patterned materials that was simply draped around the models and kept in place by pins and studs. It was his way of explaining that the individually of the wearer is what makes the dress.

After the Galaxy, Mouret unfortunately parted with his company but only to re-enter the fashion world with a line for chic Bergdorf Goodman in New York. 

It is a must to at least have one of his dresses in your work wardrobe, it breaths so much glamour and empowerment and with it’s hour-glass silhouette defines the shape of the body,, rather than obscuring it.

On the catwalk

No matter what shape...

It benefits every woman.

So start saving, do what you got do. It is a must have.