Joyeux Quatorze Juillet!

These heels from Christian Louboutin would be perfect for any uprising, French or otherwise!

Louboutin Escarpins Maloko

Thunder Only Happens When it’s Raining

You may have noticed in my post earlier this week about rain boots I left out any “rain boot heels.” There’s a reason for that.

I have never found a pair I liked.

Here we have dav rain boots in houndstooth.
Yuck.

Kate Spade made an effort with her Randy rain boots. Here they are in hot pink.
No thanks.

Even my beloved Hunter fails at making a heeled rain boot that I would wear.

The Verbier Rain Wedge is a no.

As is the Hunter Lapins Lace Up Knee-High Boot.

UGGGGGG!

Maybe the more expensive design houses got heeled rain boots right? Perhaps Chanel?

Et tu Karl?

So, I have pretty much written off heeled rain boots. However this fall/winter I may have to rethink my stance because finally, someone got it right!


Be still my heart!


Thank you Louis Vuitton!

It’s A Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s... Awesome Shoes!

You may not know this about me, but I moonlight as a Super Hero. It’s not because I have any real sense of civic duty and, unlike Batman, I’m not reacting to a childhood trauma that led me to vigilante justice. No. I just like the shoes.

When I’m out on patrol I like to wear these Nicholas Kirkwood Platform Sandals. The sound of the heel authoritatively hitting the pavement strikes fear in the hearts of all ne’er-do-wells.

When it’s time to kick a little ass I change into these gold Alejandro Ingelmo Origami booties to let all the bad guys know I mean serious business.

Flying through the air, I return to a pair of Nicholas Kirkwoods. These sandals are reminiscent of the winged sandals that Hermes (the Greek God not the fashion house) wore and the bits of metallic catch the light so beautifully when I’m soaring through the heavens.

And when I’m kicking back eating super hero cheetos I like to wear these Balenciaga Ankle Boots. They match my Arctic Fortress of Solitude so perfectly.

Being a super hero doesn’t really pay the bills though. To afford shoes sometimes a gal has to play both sides of the game. So on those rare occasions I have to resort to a little villainy I reach for these Cesare Paciotti Platform Sandals. And let's face it, sometimes it's just more fun to be a little bad.

So, what’s your super power?

Colorblocking for the Lazy

Remember earlier this season when we were all so excited for summer styles, easy breezy dressing, and finally breaking out some color after a winter of grays, beiges, greiges, and black?  Yeah, well I dunno about the rest of you, but by mid July I start getting bored of summer.  It's freaking hot out and I don't want to put a whole lot of effort into dressing (or anything else really).

 

So what is one to do when you want to be on trend but the effort of putting clothes together is too much?  Turn to your shoes to make the statement!

Clockwise from top left: Marni Geometric Paneled Leather Sandals, Pour la Victoire Cypris Colorblocked Booties, Fendi Turquoise Faille Colorblocked Sandals, and Balenciaga Red Patent and Suede Elastic Detail Platforms.

 

 

Clockwise from top left: Prada Cobalt Canvas Platform Jute and Rubber Mary Jane Wedges, Tabitha Simmons Suede Platform Wedges, Sergio Rossi Colorblocked Wedge Leather Sandal.

Easy as pie.  A very colorful pie. 

Katie’s Going for Baroque

We’re gonna need to set the mood for this. We’ll need some Handel right away. There we are, a little bit of Water Music is lovely, no?

Now, how about a beautiful fountain completed in 1762?

Fontana di Trevi in the Trevi Rione, Rome.

Perfect, I think we’re ready now.

Let’s start off nice and slow with a gorgeous ornate bib necklace from Proenza Schouler’s 2011 Fall Runway.

Perhaps next we should try a little Prada Minimal Baroque Sunglasses that are all the rage this Summer.

Though, personally, if you’re going for Baroque like I am today, I prefer the Moo Piyasombatkul sunglasses embellished with ornamental porcelain.

There’s no holding back now. Not when Chanel has embellished a flat sandal so beautifully.

Not one to be left out, Rodarte x Nicholas Kirkwood offers an amazingly ornate wedge.

But of course, the undisputed must-have designer for all things Baroque, Alexander McQueen. Last fall,

and this Spring/Summer.

Anyone else have the sudden urge to visit the Cornaro Chapel at the Santa Maria della Vittoria Church in Rome?

Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again

I’m sure that The Fortunes are actually crying because the rainy day ruined a pair of perfectly beautiful strappy sandals and not because they’re missing some girl.  They’re just too manly to admit it.

If you live pretty much anywhere on the Eastern seaboard or any of those middle-y states your summer forecast is “Hot with a chance of afternoon thunderstorms.”  Your evening forecast is “Slightly less hot with a chance of a late evening thunderstorm developing a half an hour after Katie finally falls asleep.”

The obvious choice for footwear when it rains is a rain boot.  And the obvious choice for a rain boot is the classic Hunter Wellington.  I love my graphite high gloss wellies.  I look forward to rainy spring days when I can wear a cute dress and my rain boots and go stomp around in puddles. 

Hunter Wellingtons in High Gloss Graphite

There are other options for rain boots that are just as chic, during my Red, White, and Shoe series I showcased an adorable rain boot from Sperry-Topsiders that’s a great option.  However, something about temperatures nearing the triple digit mark makes me not want to wear boots of any kind.  So I’m always reaching for other alternatives in my closet.  These alternatives may not keep my feet dry, but they’ll keep my leather and canvas shoes from being ruined when crossing the river that is the parking lot at work.

My favorite alternative is from a few seasons back (which means you can still find it, and on sale--SCORE, but in limited sizes and colors) and that is the Marni Rubber Mary Jane Pump (I sized up as I usually run somewhere between a full and a half size).  Sizes 6s and 10s might want to try The Outnet for a pair in camel.

I have the gray-the running joke is that these are my rain pumps.

Next up is Melissa Shoes, a PVC shoe made by a Brazilian shoe company taking the world by storm not only for its fabulous collaborations with designers and architects but also for its incredible committment to zero waste designing and fabrication.  Melissa is made with Melflex(tm) plastic, a plastic created specifically by and for the company, which molds itself to the foot for comfort.  It’s also recyclable!

So which designers have collaborated with Melissa?  To name a few:

• Karim Rashid (designed the Oh Chair for Umbra) 
• Zaha Hadid (architect behind the BMW Central Building in Germany, the Guangzhou Opera House in China, the Bergisel Ski Jump in Austria...) 
• Vivienne Westwood
• Jean Paul Gaultier
• and this spring 2012 Jason Wu will be adding his name to the list.

Preview of Jason Wu x Melissa Lady Dragon Pump

I gotta say, the Jason Wu Lady Dragon pump leaves me wanting.  It’s not as whimsical as some of the other Melissa designs have been.  And as far as the Lady Dragons go, nothing beats Vivienne Westwood Anglomania +  Lady Dragon Heart Shoes.

People will stop and ask you about your shoes when you wear these.

So there we have it.  You're ready to face afternoon thunderstorms and still look fabulous!  Don't forget to keep an umbrella nearby too; shoes can't protect your hair.

Chanel Needs to Pay the Power Bill...

...then Karl wouldn't have to design clothes by flashlight shoe.  Obviously that's how this happened right?

Flashlight shoes at Chanel's 2011 Fall Couture Show.

Are You Smurfing Me, Sony?

Like most folks of my generation I was a huge Smurf fan growing up.  It was a fairly simple cartoon, an easy to understand plot, and really not a whole lot else.

I have to wonder though, who exactly is the target audience with the updated movie version?

Is this intended to appeal to my generation, the generation that grew up watching The Smurfs every Saturday morning?  Are the jokes intended to be more adult because we’ve aged?  Do we really need to crude up the Smurfs?  Is it necessary when my generation already has fond memories of the cartoon and a sense of nostalgia?  Seriously, my generation gets nostalgic over everything!  First it was I Love the 60s on VH1, then the 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and then “Last Week Was Freaking AWESOME SAUCE.”  We are the generation of fake vintage t-shirts; my generation buys into nostalgia like Donald Trump buys into his own hype.

So maybe this movie is not meant to appeal to those of us who grew up with the Smurfs, maybe this is a children’s movie intended to appeal to younger audiences.

Why then must the Smurfs be set into contemporary society?  Does Sony think today’s children are incapable of watching a movie that doesn’t have all the modern trappings of text messaging, twitter, and hip hop music?  Must we update Smurfette as a modern, miniature, blue, Marilyn Monroe?  Would Neil Patrick Harris portraying Johan and Jayma Mays portraying Princess Savina instead of two random yipster (yuppie/hipster) New Yorkers seriously confuse this delicate generation that doesn't know a life without wifi?  Does Sony seriously think that little of the current generation of children and their ability to imagine a world outside their own?
 

The King, Peewit, Princess Savina, Johan and Dame Barbara

The Harry Potter franchise does just fine and I never see Ron tweeting “LOL, Malfoy fell off his broom” and Hermoine never texts Harry to remind him to finish his assignments for potions.  So, I refuse to believe it had to be updated to appeal to the younger audience.

I hope I’m wrong.  Maybe, like Enchanted before it, it will be refreshingly charming.  But I won’t hold my breath.  I will give credit where credit is due, Hank Azaria as Gargamel and Anton Yelchin as Clumsy Smurf  are superb casting choices.  (A disclaimer, I may have an inappropriate crush on the young Anton Yelchin.)

On the bright side, Smurfette rocked some pretty hot shoes in the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar.

Here we have Smurfette wearing Lanvin:

 and in Dolce & Gabbana:

I mean seriously, you didn't think it'd be an entire post about Smurfs without a little something about shoes did you?

Multitasking baby.

Tiffany’s for Under $5.00?

A catalog from Tiffany arrived in my mailbox today.  What gal doesn’t love the iconic little blue box from Tiffany?

 

But in this recession it pays to be frugal.  So, it’s time to break out the tried and true China Glaze for Audrey.

It's almost as good.

Behold, the Power of Shoes

Unless, like Paul Simon, you are a rock, you are an island, you come into contact with people on a fairly regular basis.  And even Simon had Garfunkel for awhile.  Speaking of, I’m sure that song made Garfunkel feel just peachy about himself. “I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.” Oh Artie, you had to have known this breakup was eminent...  I had a point. 

Oh yes, no (wo)man is an island and for right or for wrong the way we dress may attract or repel attention.

I can’t be the only person that uses that to my advantage?

If you read my first blog entry you’ll notice that I’m fond of Camilla Skovgaard shoes.  I love them.  Some of her designs are way out there but some of the more simple pumps have just that slight touch of bad girl in them that appeal to me.  Every time I wear the bright pink coral saw pumps I get stopped.  Women want to talk about them.  And I love talking about shoes.

But I also realized I could use this to my advantage.

When I had to work at a bridal show I decide to dress like a peacock.  Well, figuratively mind you.  I pulled on the Camilla Skovgaards; I figured, if nothing else, I’d get people to my booth to ask about my shoes and once they were there and talking to me I’d steer the conversation straight to the product I was there to sell.  And it worked.

Yeah, you know you wanna approach the gal with the crazy shoes.

The best part of my day was when a well known baker came by our booth and told me in an appreciative tone, "You have serious balls for wearing those shoes all day."  Written down, it doesn't translate well, but trust me, tone matters!

Of course there is a corollary.  When I’m in a bad mood I try to dress so as NOT to garner attention.  I can’t recall why, but I remember a day getting progressively worse.  While in line at a Subway a perfectly nice woman complimented my outfit.  I responded in kind but not with my usual enthusiasm.  The minute I got home I changed into blue jeans and ancient doc martens oxfords with the comfort soles.  I simply wasn’t up for strangers that day and I wanted to blend in rather than stand out.

Bonsai does 90s angst like a champion.

Very seldom have I ever found myself wearing shoes for male attention.  And contrary to popular male belief an appreciation of shoes amongst women is NOT a competition (well maybe it is for some, we're not a monolithic group, I can't speak for us all).  It's just something pretty to enjoy; sometimes pleasures truly are simple with no ulterior motive.

That said, if you see that bitch walk by in the Navy Blue Patent Leather Campy Mary Janes, you knock her down, I'll steal her shoes and we both run.  We'll rendezvous at Starbucks.  No, not that one, the other one.  No, the one closer to my house.  There's one on that street?  No, the one near the book store.  You know what, I'll just see you later.  Don't get caught!

Oh navy blue Manolos, the things I would do for you (except, you know, spend $645)...

So what about you?  Are you a peacock that uses your clothing and accessories as a walking billboard?