These shoes have stood out to me as the most directional of the footwear crop of winter ’08, because frankly I’m confused right now what direction footwear is going. So many of the usual heavy-hitters that I count on (Prada & Miu Miu, Chloe, Lanvin) have gone in a direction that I can’t even relate to. Some played it too safe (Lanvin, Proenza Schouler, Marni) and between this season and the last I can’t help but wonder whether or not Miuccia Prada is dabbling in some serious drugs.
Left: the fairy floral shitstorm shoe; Spring 08, right: the ‘bunny’ shoe; Fall 09
From woodland fairies to furry forest animals-get out of the woods Miuccia, the shrooms are getting to you. These shoes suck on so many levels-the sillouhette is absolutely not flattering on the foot. Out of morbid curiosity, I have tried on the flaming fairy fiasco shoes and was dumbfounded how these shoes ever made it into production-in keeping with the woodland theme, my legs resembled tree stumps. Then I got angry-these shoes are mocking the Prada customer. Is this a case of the emperor’s new shoes?
Last season Marni’s superfuturistic acrylic wedges had shoe addicts everywhere speed dialing their sales associates to procure these shoes as quickly as possible. This season the shoes at Marni are a mashup of past seasons models, only with a big scoop of poop dumped on them and then thrown in the bland cycle on turbo-speed. Oh and did I mention the random chunks of tweed that make me want to barf?
Marni’s attempt at playing it safe
What was with the batch of granny shoes, as evidenced below? Even though I bashed Miuccia’s overly artsy foot binding contraptions in recent seasons, I can at least admire for putting herself out there. These shoes, however, are playing it uncomfortably safe. You have to ask yourself, how are these shoes relevant right now? These say nothing about how I feel about footwear or fashion. They’re taking the fun out footwear.
From the left to right: Proenza Schouler’s nod to 80’s ‘Nina’s’, Lanvin’s WTF mary jane, and Nina Ricci’s onesie-as-a-shoe
And as for Chloe, there really are no words. Let me just say that they could be the sole reason Paulo Melim Andersson was fired. Or at least they should have been.
Ingredients for Chloe footwear Fall 08: leaves, twigs, airplane glue, LSD.
This why I’m sticking to my guns with the Givenchy boots. Riccardo Tisci is a man whose shoes mean business.
I never got those Tea cup or whatever shoes by Miu Miu. They make your legs look so bad in so many different levels that it is still amazing how many people are buying them. And all that floral direction… It`s nice if you look at shoe as an art object, like, you know, for some kind of exhibition, but on feet… a bit too much.
I really love givenchy ones. Closed toe though, they kinda makes good proportion, though open toe can be worn in summer… hmmm…. nah, closed toe for me :) they are edgy enough to be hard to pull off :)
Wow ! What a lot of ugly shoes for winter… It makes me almost happy that I can’t afford these designers !
But the Givenchy ones seems cute, even if the picture make them a little bit…Strange with the legs everywhere !
i’ve seen before the one you call fairy and immediately i fell in love with that shoe :)
The only thing I disliked about Prada’s shoes for Spring was the chunky floral heel – but for Fall, I completely agree, the shoes look some sort of aquatic vegetation. The shoes Miu Miu has for fall that were not on the runway are nice but the ones on the runway were strange (I loved Miu Miu’s spring shoes, though). Givenchy’s wedge boots are so futuristic and gothic I don’t know who could resist them, especially for making velcro look so current. Jil Sander’s Fall shoes were boring and quite frightening.
It’s definitely a huge trend for footwear to be outrageous right now; I think it will be disappointing when it passes as there will be less quirky options.
um, i usually love you’re taste but im sorry this post sounds rediculously annoying and relentless.. maybe if you realized the direction that fashion itself moved in this year, that of being incredibly artfully inspired you would have understood the inspiration behind ss07 prada and obvious james jean concept work, or the lace and the inpsiration of vitalism obviosuly behind both prada and miu miu footwear this season…
Marni may be safer then usual but the shoes matched the collection to a tee.. those knee high peep toe boots are to die for and theres no denying that.
the safe shoes i agree with
the chloe shoes were perfect for the collection and it was paulo’s least-marni collection for chloe ever… he pretty much forgot about his whole style and did somehting that would sell because he knew people werent accepting him, whcih fucking sucks… his designs for chloe were refreshign and what the house needed, as we can see but the fucking sesspool that is chloe resort 08, designed by phoebe philo’s assistant herself. i dont get why it’s so hard for you people to let go of the fucking phoebe philo image. shes gone. its done. get the fuck over it
LOL, this post is witty and clever. I /do/ think the Marni’s on the left are quite nice, tweed and all, but really I think your critiques are spot on! Ho ho ho at the Chloes and their ingredients…
I agree that there was A LOT of uglys in the shoe department for fw08 i like the givenchys and as dramatic as they are i love rodartes and viktor& rolfs shoes for Fall/Winter 08.
i kind of like the marni >,< just the middle ones, i like wooden heals
oh yeah btw check out my blog. i am so inspired by yours and hope you like mine enough to bookmark it. i just started it so there isnt a million posts yet :)
http://revolttt.wordpress.com/
I warned everyone – the balenciaga athletic inspired rainbow sandal was the beginning of shoe apocalypse.
About the wtf mary jane – how is a (human) foot supposed to strap into that?
I actually like Chloe’s use of rosettes and stuff, when mild and tasteful. (sans snakeskin)
I usually love your carefree approach in this blog, but I am afraid that this shoe bashing has gone way out of control.
It seems as though you have nothing to blog about and purely take your interests in picking out the flaws and emphasising on them. Everything created in these collections are artworks, if you don’t like it, leave it. Don’t bash it to your own liking.
Aw, I love the flower shoes!
hahaha you´re so funny…..not laughed that much today…hahaha. you might be right with the LSD!! maybe miuccia borrowed some from paulo!
Haha. Jane, good post. You are a shoe expert, you know your shit!
ewww. you’re so right. i think the purple chloe ones wouldn’t be so bad if they were…well, for starters, another color…and ehhmm if they didn’t have that bow/ claw like thing on the spat…but that would just be another shoe entirely! i’m looking forward to the givenchies!
Just because you have no taste for Prada and Chloe shoes does not mean anything in the world in terms of style and fashion. Everyone has their own style and obviously those are not yours. But from a person who appreciates art’s POV, I think the Pradas are delightful. Can you tell me what exactly inspired Givenchy? Art? All I see is a chunky black leather boot that offers toe cleavage.
go ahead and bash those shoes all you want, darling! people are so silly sometimes.
i totally agree with you about the prada ss08 shoes (and miu miu tea cups, for that matter). that whole “woodland fairy” thing is just so “ick” to me. but i do LOVE the new fw shoes. they have the right structure meets ballet shoe aesthetic that i love (but can rarely pull off) and would be such a good refresher with fall suiting. thank god we’re moving away from the boring pointy toe!
Got some fab shoes from a website called cachet http://www.cachetdesignershoes.co.uk
Delivery was quick and saved over £60 because they were on sale!
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