NOV
2012 20

Espadrille Hunting in Barcelona

I’m a bottle of wine, several razor-thin slices of Iberico ham and one digestif that tastes like burning tires into my afternoon recovery and I am still not emotionally prepared to discuss the heartache involved in finding La Manual Alpargatera, the century-old purveyor of espadrilles deep in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona. In the spirit of full disclosure, I really should’ve written down the address and not relied on the kooky idea that everyone would be as excited as I was about a sandal shop that’s been around since Wilbur Wright showed King Alfonso XIII the intricacies of his fabulous…

NOV
2012 08

The One That Got Away

When I started curating my shoe collection nearly a decade ago –when Lacroix still had his atelier, Gaultier was CD for HermÃ¨s and Muccia Prada’s current models were still fetuses instead of just practically ones– I did so with the knowledge that someday the newspaper gravy train, where I was raking in tens of dollars a month, would end. I bought carefully and within my means, bringing home a pair of new lovelies only if I could pay cash and was confident they’d be just as stylish thirty years from the moment I stood, insidey parts all a-tingle, at the…

NOV
2012 06

Do The Right Thing

Whether Democrat, Republican, Or otherwise affiliated, Get out there are vote! Oh, and click the images for links.

NOV
2012 01

For All The Saints (okay, just one, but he’s fabulous)

A little Yves Saint Laurent for All Saints Day. Yes, I coordinate my designers with the liturgical calendar. Don’t judge me, I’m pretty sure I’m the only person to play Jesus while wearing a pair of oxblood Christian Lacroix sandals with a cream crocodile sculpted heel. In your face, Jim Caviezel! Click the images for links. Sadly, the heels –could you die over those emerald soles?– don’t come in size elephant foot, but anyone who wears size 10 and below is in luck.

OCT
2012 30

Shoes in Cinema: Kinky Boots

I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing cobblers glue. I’m in Virginia now, and although the worst seems to be over, the whole DC Metro area got pounded like British currency. My fella, Hot Latin Boy, is holding down the fort at Plumcake Cottage in Baja, Mexico where a previously inactive volcano has started to be less inactive as one might hope. Frankly I’m just one Aimee Mann song away from that crazy scene in Magnolia and I’m pretty sure my wiper blades won’t be able to take it. I’ve got this weird survivalist streak that means my hatches…

OCT
2012 25

Multiple Choice Time: Dolce & Gabbana

I’m going to Italy with two pairs of shoes. Talk about a tough decision. I mean, it’s Italy. That’s where the shoes were BORN. Selecting one pair of flats and one of heels was like Sophie’s Choice, except you can always have more kids, but Miu Miu only made those vernice slingbacks one season. As much as I’d like to traipse around the cobblestones of Italia in my most precarious heels, it’s not going to happen. You need to be either a billy goat or an Italian woman to carry that off and since I am neither (although I do…

OCT
2012 23

Found in Translation

…with varying degrees of success. Heels from Malene Birger, Reed Krakoff and Giambattista Valli all available on considerable sale from The Outnet.

OCT
2012 16

Magic Foot-Ensmallening Shoes from Gucci

I am not going to pretend I spend a lot of time worrying whether my feet look big. I didn’t especially worry about it before, and now that I live in Mexico where the directions to my remote beach cottage involve, “turn left on the dirt road by the big pile of rocks onto the trail that looks like you could probably drive across it and turn right just before you hit sand. If you drive into a dolphin or other surprised marine creature, you’ve gone too far” whether my big feet do, in fact, look big usually gets pushed…

OCT
2012 11

Fab Four: Wearable Midheels for Fall

Ah midheels, after a decade of skyscraper stilettos, the humble midheel is not only a sensible choice, but a surprisingly fresh one. The mustard suede Salvatore Ferragamo Dalia has an elegantly balanced Louis heel and is on serious sale for an investment shoe. The Maris from Paul Green is an easy schlepping around town heel, when one wants a bit of style to go with the schlep. Although they’ve moved their manufacturing to China, Frye still offers great American classics like theÂ Regina Pump. Wouldn’t it be nice if they still made them in the USA? King of the fabric…

OCT
2012 09

It’s a Look

to quote our dear friend Thombeau…but is it enough? This ever-subtle wedge comes from that master of the understatement, Christian Louboutin. Somewhere in Shepherd’s Bush Holland Park, Edina Monsoon is missing a hoof cover.

OCT
2012 04

The Continental

People say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. False. The road to Hell is paved in cobblestones, which means you can’t wear heels. That’s what makes it Hell. When I first expatriated, I lived in a little village paved with the Devil’s bunions and it was a two mile walk to the restaurant that provided most of my sustenance. I walked eight miles a day that car-less summer. Heels were out of the question. I used bronze Roman sandals instead. After all, a girl must have some glamor. Even when I had wheels, I still refused to…

OCT
2012 02

Zanotti, Morrissey and the (almost) death of a cobbler

After our recent Is It A Shoe contest, I feel perhaps we’ve given Guiseppe Zanotti the fuzzy end of the proverbial lollipop. True, he is guilty of the spiky horse hoof shoe, not to mention these: (these are all from several seasons ago, and yes, the dollar sign shoes would’ve set you back a cool grand) Yes, he does tend to err slightly on the Russian Mafia Call Girl side of things from time to time but he’s also capable of walking that fine edge of playful elegance just as well as his fellow countrymen Dolce and Gabbana. Some of…