New Woman's Shoe Style

ALEXANDRE BIRMAN LOLITA BOW-EMBELLISHED SUEDE SANDALS

Alexandre Birman is one of those shoe designers I don’t feature all that often here on ShoeperWoman, but when I do, it’s always worth the wait. Actually, Birman was responsible for creating one of my favourite shoes of all time: these from 2012, which I still have to go back and look at from time to time, just to remind myself how awesome they were. (And to really wish I’d been able to afford a pair, obviously.)

Actually, those peep toes are a really good example of why I love this brand, and it’s the same reason I love Christian Louboutin: although, on paper, the designs would sound deceptively simple, when you actually see them, there’s just something about them that sets them apart, and makes them extra special. Of course, you don’t have to look too far, or think too hard, to work out what sets these shoes apart. In fact, there are two things that jump out at you right away: the colours, and the bows.

Now, as those who know me will be well aware, I’ve never been a big fan of outfits which mix lots of bright colours – in fact, more than ONE bright colour, and I’m out. It’s the kind of thing that can look amazing on other people, but which, on me, always feels a bit childish any time I attempt it. Shoes, however, are a different matter altogether: you can get away with things on a shoe that you might not want to attempt in the rest of your look, so I think that, if you do want to have a go at mixing – or even clashing – colours, shoes like these are a good place to start. Although the colours all contrast with each other, they still work well together, and because the strappy design means the colours only cover a small amount of surface area, I think these should be relatively easy to style, too  – they’ll work with any neutral, and, of course, any of the colours found on the upper.



 SAINT LAURENT RED BOW EMBELLISHED SANDALS

These shoes  had me at the words, “bow embellished”. Seriously, if a brand ever decided it wanted to take all my money, all they’d have to do would be to stick some over-sized bows on their shoes, and I can almost guarantee I’d want to buy them. Of course, a bright red upper doesn’t hurt, either: I’ve slowly been purging most of the very bright colours from my shoe shelves, because I realised I just wasn’t wearing them all, but red is the one colour that I’ll always find room for: I actually think I wear red shoes almost as often as I wear black ones (Although probably not quite as much as I wear nude or gold ones: everyone has their favourite!), so while I’m not really sure why I like them more than other colours (Strangely enough, I hardly ever wear red at all, other than on my feet…), I do know they’re pretty much a “neutral” as far as I’m concerned.

These Saint Laurent sandals make a particularly effective use of the bright red colour on that shiny red upper. It guaranteed that these would stand out, regardless of what the rest of the shoe looked like, but luckily, in this case, the shoe is almost equally interesting. the oversized bow stretches all the way across the toe, and is knotted in the centre, creating a bit of a vintage-inspired look. The sandal is finished off with a thin ankle strap, and a high stiletto heel, and although it would be tempting to reserve them for special occasions, especially given the price tag, Net-a-Porter have shown these styled with a pair of black leather trousers and a stripe top, which looks really good, too. Is there anything that DOESN’T look good with a stripe top and red shoes, though? Because, if so, I’m not sure I even want to know what                    
ZARA HIGH HEEL PATENT ANKLE BOOTS

This month, in a bid to try to reduce the amount of unnecessary spending I do on clothes (I have a very bad habit of spotting something I didn’t even know I wanted, and then convincing myself I can”t possibly live without it), I’ve promised myself not to even LOOK at the clothing sections of the retailers I frequent. Unfortunately for my bank balance, I can’t avoid the websites altogether (Well, it would be pretty hard to run a shoe blog without ever looking at the new shoes on offer, wouldn’t it?), but lately I’m doing my best to just go straight to the shoe section – purely in the name of blog research, you understand – and then leave again when I’m done, without so much as a glance at the dresses, skirts or coats – which are a particular weakness of mine.

This all seemed like a good plan at the time, but, unfortunately, it’s still proving something of a struggle, because, as I mentioned earlier in the month, shoes are just SO damn good right now that it’s far too tempting to just switch my spending to them, instead – particularly when the shoes (or boots, rather) in question are just £30.

These are from Zara, and if I’d spotted them earlier in the season, I’d definitely have grabbed a pair: I get so bored with wearing boots all the time during the winter, but the black patent uppers on these ones really help dress them up, and make them a little more interesting. You can’t quite see it from the photo, but these also have a little cut-out section at the ankle, which also helps add a bit of interest, while minimising the “line across the ankle”effect that ankle boots can be prone to.
                                                                                                                                           CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN PIGALLE FOLLIES CALF CAVIAR CERISE

 I think the Pigalle Follies might just have become my number one most coveted Louboutin style of the moment.

For those who aren’t familiar with the various different permutations of the style, ‘Follies’ is the newer version of the classic ‘Pigalle’ pump. The basic shape is almost identical, but the toe box is a little shorter, and the heel slightly slimmer – so it’s basically a cross between the original ‘Pigalle’ and the ‘So Kate’, really. This is welcome news for those who loved the original Pigalles, but were slightly less enamoured with the newer version, which, again, looks almost the same, but which lacks that je ne sais quoi of the original.

For myself, my Pigalle pumps are by far the most frequently worn shoes I own, and I’d wear them with absolutely everything I owned, if I wasn’t too worried about totally wearing them out, and having to replace them. (I actually have a few high street versions which I wear on days I know I’ll have to do a lot of walking: they don’t look nearly as good, but they create a similar effect, and mean I don’t have to wear out my beloveds too much!) If I could change one thing, though, it would be the toe length, which could be doing with being just a touch shorter – as it is in the Pigalle Follies.

Like both ‘Pigalle’ and ‘So Kate’, these shoes are released every season, and are available in a variety of different colours and prints. For summer 2017, however, they’ve been released in this cute cherry print upper – which has just about broken me, seriously. I LOVE cherry print on anything, and will always want to buy it when I see it, so when it’s attached to a shoe I love, too, it’s pretty lethal. And, for once, these are still available in my size, too…                                                                                                  DOLCE & GABBANA POLKA DOT PLATFORM PEEP TOES

Is it just me, or have shoes suddenly got a lot more interesting, all of a sudden?

Don’t get me wrong – shoes have ALWAYS been interesting to me, which is why I started a blog about them. For a while there, though, I wasn’t finding footwear quite as compelling as it once was – mostly because everything seemed to look pretty much the same to me, really. For the first half of last year, for instance, I hardly bought any new shoes at all – and I’d hardly bought any in the 6 – 12 months prior to that, either. All of a sudden, though, there came a point last year when I couldn’t seem to open a retail website without finding a shoe I really wanted to buy. Slowly the shoe boxes started arriving at the door again, and last month I had to re-organise my shoe shelves a bit, to try to make way for some of the new arrivals. My wish list, meanwhile, is full of footwear, and every time I look at the higher-end websites, I practically start salivating over the shoes I find there.

Which brings me to these Dolce & Gabbana peep toes.

I’ll never own them, let’s get that straight right from the beginning. It’s also worth noting here that, even when the shoe world seemed to go through that lengthy dry spell, this brand still somehow managed to keep coming up with the goods, and making shoes that were just a whole lot more interesting than some of their competitors. With that said, these polka dot peep toes really reminded me of all of the reasons I started writing about shoes – and why I love them so much. They’re fun, they’re interesting, they’re the kind of shoes that will totally transform even a plain pair of jeans into something with a bit of ‘wow’ factor: and that, folks, is why I love shoes                                                                                             ZARA BLUE PATENT MARY JANE HEELS

These shoes seemed a little bit of of place on the Zara website.

Don’t get me wrong: Zara is one of my top 5 brands, and has been for a long time – my closet is full of their clothes and shoes, but while I can always find something to suit my taste there, there’s no denying that a lot of the merchandise – particularly in the shoe section – tends to skew towards the “trendy” side of style: which, right now means lots of embroidered boots and blocky heels. Nestled amongst all of those on-trend pieces, though, I found this pair of baby blue patent Mary Janes, which are much more prim and proper than they are “cutting edge fashion,” don’t you think?

For me, that very “prim and proper” look is the main reason I don’t actually own any shoes in this style. I have done in the past, but while I love looking at them, the very ladylike feel is one that I worry could look a little bit matronly when worn with the midi skirts and dresses I tend to favour. While they might not quite work for me, however,  I do think these are objectively beautiful shoes, and I absolutely love the colour, which makes me think of spring, Easter eggs and all of the good things that come with the new season. These will undoubtedly work well with all of the spring florals and pastels we’ll no doubt be seeing soon, but I think they’ll also work well with an all-black (or, alternatively, all white) outfit, with the pale blue shoes offering a bit of contrast.

I’ve almost talked myself into wanting to buy them here, so I should probably stop now, before I go adding them to my Wish List… OR before I venture away from the shoe section, and start adding some clothes to my shopping basket, while I’m there!                                                                               SHOE REVIEW: MELISSA ‘SPACE LOVE’ FLATS IN WHITE

If you , you might already have seen that I finally caved and bought a pair of the Melissa ballet flats I’ve been eyeing for a few weeks now: whoops.

These are the ‘Space Love’ style, and I got mine from this prticular style seems to be sold out at the moment, which is a shame, because I actually think these are my favourites of all of the various Melissa flats I’ve owned – so much so that I’m already thinking of ordering the pink and black version, too. The main reason I love these is – and I know no one will be remotely surprised by this – that amazing little bow on the front. It’s definitely one of the nicer shoe bows I’ve seen, and if they were to put this on the front of a pair of Lady Dragons, say, well, I suspect I’d be breaking my resolution not to buy any more of those, too! It’s just so cute, and I love the gold glitter effect, which makes these feel extra-special, even although they’re “just” a pair of ballet flats.

Size wise, I wasn’t quite sure which size to go for, as I’ve had issues with Melissa flats in the past, and seem to be between sizes in them, with my usual size often too small, while the size up will be much too big. After reading a few reviews, though, I did decide to go for my usual size, and I’d say these do run true-to-size: yes, they will start to feel a little snug if I’ve been wearing them for a while, and, as they’re rubber, there’s no stretch to the upper at all, but I can tell that the size up would be way too large, and these have the same, spring sole that Melissa are famous for, which makes them extra comfortable.