July 2008 Archives

Back in the day, we remember wearing our L.L Bean "Duckies" everywhere. Rain or shine, we had them on.

Now, Tory Burch is looking to bring back the duck boot with a little of her own style. Destined for to appear in her upcoming fall collection, the "Mathew" Duck Boot will be available in a range of juicy colors, including apple green, black, and cherry red (pictured above). We fancy ourselves in the red pair trying to bring back the late 80's....only this time, we will be showing-off our little Tory Burch Goldtone logo!

You can pre-order the Tory Burch Mathew Duck Boot at Nordstrom.com; Retail ($195).

As a newcomer to the shoe blogging scene, you can imagine our jubilation at being included in Guy Kawasaki's (former Apple Computer Marketing Genius) news aggregation site, Alltop.com. Calling themselves “highly subjective and judgemental”, Alltop has chosen Shoeflair as one of their top fashion sites on the web. To be included with such blogs we admire as The Manolo, Running With Heels, and The Bag Snob is an honor we are still trying to grasp with just a mere 6 months under our collective belts.

If you have a chance, check out the fashion collection on Alltop. Over the last few months, it has steadily become one of the few sites we check on a daily basis.

After looking for the right location, Jimmy Choo opened its latest Japanese footprint in Tokyo's upscale retail district, Ginza. The new store, Choo’s sixth in Japan, features more than 1,700 square feet on two levels and will allow Choo to show Japanese customers the broadest possible spectrum of its product range.

The Ginza flagship is the latest product of Choo’s global retail push. This year, the company is opening 21 doors, lifting its store count to 82 by year’s end.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the wonder-woman powers we receive when wearing high-heels. Needless to say we have a word of caution for those looking to give Lynda Carter a run for her money....find a comfy pair for god sakes!

It is no fun to feel on top of the world for a few hours only to come crumbling down to a weeping-moaning pile of human-ness the morning after. With that said, we hit a few of the local boutiques over the weekend and found a few pair that tipped the comfy scale.

• Marciano Garvin; Textured Leather featuring Native American Accents, Retail ($260)
• Jimmy Choo Clue; Black Velvet Platform Slingbacks, Retail ($512)
• Christian Louboutin Peniche; Patent Leather Loafer Pump, Retail ($995)
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For those familiar with Bo'em's line of wonderful sandals from designer Justine Potashnik, get ready for a fantastic new addition to the Bo'em line.

In July, the label plans to launch a comfort driven line of shoes called Marcher. The line will feature sophisticated flats, wedges and pumps all made using ohhhh so comfortable Poron footbeds. You may remember our post a while back regarding the use of NASA inspired Poron in Taryn Roses' line of sophisticated styles for both men and women.

The shoes will retail the ornamental touches typical of Bo'em and will retail for $225 (sandals) and $365 (boots).

We have posted a great deal of products to hang and organize your boots the past few months. Why, no products for shoes you ask? Well, we did post about the Benji Box for organizing multiple pair into one box. The Benji Box works great, but what we really wanted was something to individually organize each pair.

Enter the Shoe Seen from fashionista, Stacy Karen. Each bag features a clear vinyl front window, making contents easily identifiable in a crowded closet. The outer covering is made of smooth velvet and comes in a small size for flats and a large size for heels.

The bags can be purchased at The Shoe Seen website for $10 each. Get them while they are hot ladies!

Our good friends over at Fantastic Toe tagged us with a Premio Blog Award! If you haven't checked out their site, it is like a visual shoe forum on steroids. Stay tuned in the months to come as we hi-light a few of their reader collections.

With regards to the Premio Award, rules state that we must pass it along to a few of our favorite blogs, so here it goes:

• Running With Heals
• The Rolling Rack
• Still A Girl
• Discovering Hair Blog
• Fashion Junkie

It has been a few months since Be&D made the transition from bags to shoes with their 2008 Spring Collection. According to Steve Dumain from Be&D, the footwear line is off to a good start, with the bulk of sales coming from retailers such as Harvey Nichols in London and Saks Fifth Avenue in Dubai. With shoe sales currently at 20% of the label's business, Dumain expects the footwear line to eventually ring up more sales than handbags.

We absolutely love the fresh designs the label unveiled in its Spring Collection. From a company that produced bags for years, we think Be&D is off to a great start.
We absolutely love the Beatty Pumps for $485 at their online store.

Since Summer is our favorite season, and thus, sandals happen to be what we wear with literally everything, we thought we would put together a short list of our favorites.

1. Sigerson Morrison Taupe Leather with Titanium Discs. We loooooooove these sandals - perfect with a pair of jeans or skirt anyday "between the Monday's". Retail ($395).
2. Tory Burch Patent Thong Sandal, Bright. Another dandy pair of sandals to wear with or jeans or summer skirt for a night out. Retail ($195)
3. Just Cavalli Rodacc. We all agreed this is the "sandal on the bubble", but Cavalli is so amazingly comfortable that it made our number 3 spot. Retail ($189)
4. Stuart Weitzman Gladio. When this sandal came out in early Spring, we new it would be a favorite. We love the sophistication it exudes and works well from backyard barbeque to night on the town. Retail ($260)

After our post a week ago regarding the power of heels, we have been inundated in email from women looking for an affordable pair of Louboutin's that they can wear-out on a date and feel, well--empowered...

We think we have found just the pair! We love these Christian Louboutin Pigalle Patent Pumps for $369.00 ($505.00 Retail) at Downtowngal Shoes.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of "The Wizard of Oz" next year, Warner Bros. Consumer Products has partnered with Swarovski and 19 designers to create their version of Dorothy's iconic ruby slippers.

A. Testoni, Abaeté, Alberta Ferretti, Betsey Johnson, Botkier, Christian Louboutin, Diane von Furstenberg, Giuseppe Zanotti, Jimmy Choo, L.A.M.B. by Gwen Stefani, Lisa Pliner, Manolo Blahnik, Moschino, Oscar de la Renta, Roger Vivier, Sergio Rossi, Stuart Weitzman, Tibi and Tuleh will use Crystallized Swarovski Elements in their designs, which will be officially unveiled in Saks Fifth Avenue's windows and designer shoe salon during a gala on Sept. 4.

The shoes will then be displayed at the tents at Bryant Park before making various stops around the country, including Art Basel in Miami. Proceeds from the auction of the collection will benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

During our Spring cleaning frenzy a few months ago, we wrote about these handy little boot hangers from the Container Store. I must say, they do work great for organizing boots, however, if you would like something that does a bit more for "shaping & preserving" your fine Italian Leather boots, then check out Booty Shapers.

They remind us a little of the inflatable beach balls you had as a kid. Just inflate the Booty Shapers, insert into your boots – it’s truly that simple! The good news is that they "mold" to any boot size via the amount of air that is used to inflate the shaper.

They come in three different sizes and designs: Roman Holiday (short length), African Safari (medium length), and Paisley Pennach (long length) and retail around $34.00. If you live in the U.S. check shoebuy.com for a complete inventory selection.

The pointy toe is ohhhh, so 80's....But, before you start bringing out the leg warmers, take a look at these fantastic pointy toe's with unique styling such as patent leather "croc" detailing or camel suede buckles.
You can find the Jill Sander Slingbacks at Yoox for $108;
-The Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquière Camel suede heels with buckle for $950;
-The Michael Kors "Beekman" Patent Croco Pumps for $109.

Here at Shoeflair, we receive a great deal of email regarding women looking for stylish designer shoes in larger sizes (10 and up). We usually shrug our shoulders a bit and tell them to talk to a sales person at Neiman Marcus.

A while ago, we stumbled across kathrynkerrigan.com. For women with larger foot sizes, your prayers are now answered. Handcrafted in Spain, Kathryn's designs give the soles a well-deserved break from constricting fabrics, uncomfortable heels and flats. No longer are you relegated to wearing shapeless toe flats and boring square-toed pumps, her collections have their own flair with stylistic designs that are not only beautiful, but comfortable to wear.

We especially love the Wendy Red ($319), Ames ($329), Tamra Plum ($331), and the Maria ($329) (pictured above).

Check out all of her designs at www.kathrynkerrigan.com.

Yes Summer is just in full swing, but it wouldn't be fashion if we didn't start looking at the next season's looks during the current season, right? Anyway, we love the soft-drapey-bare arm-low neckline dresses that one could call "Bohemian" for 'near summer's-end attire. The look is going to remain big this fall with many boots hitting the stores to compliment the bohemian ensemble.

A designer we absolutely love is Charles David. Offering a boot for any outfit, the designer (Charles Malka) has clearly done his homework for the upcoming collection. The "Chalet" ($625) and "Clover" ($575) are two boots that will fit nicely into the bohemian wardrobe--providing a nice "chunky" heel with flattering proportions.

The designer will be offering e-commerce purchasing at the charlesdavid.com site soon. For now, hit one of the many retail locations.

Ok, it has been over a month since the Sex and The City Movie premier, and a few weeks since we at Shoeflair have penned anything to do with the subject (whew!). However, the buzz regarding the "other" character just hasn't stopped. Bergdorf Goodman revved-up its marketing engines and included a real-life mockup of Carrie's closet for display at their Fifth Avenue Window display. At the center of the display was the famed pair of blue satin Manolo Blahnik jeweled pumps.

As part of Blahnik's Spring '09 collection, the pump was on "wait-list status" until a week ago. With the pumps now in-stock, Bergdorf is working through the hundreds of customers that signed-up in anticipation of the shoes eventual stock availability. At $945, they are on the high-end of the price-spectrum, though if you remember, Carrie Bradshaw had quoted their price as roughly half that in the movie!

Shoeflair is proud to announce our "Free Pair Of Shoes A Month Giveaway". To bring this special--"to-die for offer" to our readers, we have partnered with the folks at Downtowngal Shoes to graciously enable a monthly raffle featuring a choice from their selection of popular designer shoes such as Christian Louboutin, Ferragamo, Gucci, Jimmy Choo, Kate Spade, Manolo Blahnik, Prada, Tod's, and much more.

Each month from August 1, 2008 to August 1st, 2009, we will draw a random name from that specific month's list of unique shoeflair.com registrants. The lucky winner will be notified via email and given a super secret (100%--off) code to use during checkout at www.downtowngalshoes.com.

To see the event Press Release, click HERE.
To view the complete rules and regulations, click HERE.

With the introduction of Heelarious Slippers, High-heels officially have no age limit. With a little crib and Carrie Bradshaw, the mock stilettos come in five different styles including the hot-pink patent leather Elle as well as the leopard-print Brook and zebra satin Kayla.

These little gems are perfect for your budding fashionista no matter what the age (makes me want to have a little girl just to see her in the pink stilettos!). The slippers retail for $35 and are completely collapsible.

Heelarious.com

Every now and then we come across a deal that we just can't pass-up. Such is the case with these fantastic Marc Jacobs (MJ Logo) Canvas Sandals. Sure rubber sandals are nice for the beach, but canvas is the "wear-anywhere" sandal fabric for summer--perfect for the beach, dinner outings, or just sidewalk shopping.

You can find these Marc Jacobs Canvas Slides at Downtowngal Shoes for ($79.00)
Make sure to enter code: 10JULYSHIP to receive $10 off shipping for the month of July.

Heels are soooo empowering! If you have ever asked a guy what he really thinks of women in heels that push their height taller than the average male, you will want to wear them all the time. I recently was dating a man that leveled-out at 6' 2"---so taller than your average guy. When I donned these Burberry Gladiator's at a charity event, I noticed our evening together was a bit off. When I finally confronted him for an explanation, he confided that he was a bit intimidated! Taller men that are accustomed to looking down on most women, are a bit-off with women that are able to stand eye-to-eye with them.

With the secret out--I promised myself to shout it from every rooftop! So there you go ladies...slip on the high-heels and be prepared for an evening with your man like no other (NBA basketball players aside)!

You can find these fabulous Burberry Gladiator Strappy Sandals at Neiman Marcus for $1,195.00.

In continuing with our series on "Shoe Shopping In A Recession", we thought we would delve into the eBay world a bit and provide a few suggestions and tips on how to get a great deal---AND get what you paid for.

I. A few eBay sellers we have purchased from and are happy with:

-OnlyModa: Nice shoes from clearance racks at a few of the stores listed above.
-Downtowngal Shoes: The largest Tod's seller we have found online. Fantastic prices on previous seasons styles
-Natural Gas Girl: Not the cheapest selection, but if you are looking for a full collection of Christian Louboutin, this seller has a ton.

II. What to look for when viewing eBay Auctions:

-Make sure the item images are not stock images. If the seller is worth their salt, they will take the time and take original photos of their items.
-Read the item description carefully: I know this sounds trite, but many sellers will include information about returns and authenticity, as well as where the item was purchased--in the description.
-Do your research before you bid/buy: Many times, sellers may omit style names as some are only included on original boxes. Check a few online stores, like Neiman Marcus, Saks, Barneys, or Bergdorf Goodman to verify that the shoes are what the seller claims.
-Look for original stickers/markings: If you are questioning the sellers claim of item authenticity, see if the pictures contain original store markings or tags. Or, email the buyer and ask for additional pictures and proof of authenticity.