My Aspirational Shoes: Roger Vivier

This is what couture means to me. 

Roger Vivier Tea dyed gazar Nouvelle Vague open toe with wood flowers

$10,300

Armadillos in Captivity - McQueen Runway for the Real World

I think we are finally seeing how the McQueen "Armadillo" shoes are going to be translated for the real world...



W Magazine did a Run of Show preview portfolio of key pieces with some sourcing and there on slide 8, center model, it looked to me like the McQueens brought to life, albeit a bit tamer then their runway counterparts.

What do you think of the reality? Yes? No?

Kind of Flat

There was a lot of praise for the Chanel S/S 2008 Couture show but it left me pretty much uninspired. There were a few interesting details like these folded and pleated skirts, but over all, eh, not feeling it.

I like the folds on this:



and the pleats and stitching on this:



I did like these dresses. They were unusal and had an element of the strange about them.



But they were nothing compared to the Lacroix and Dior shows. At least not to me anyways.



But what really left me cold was the fact that they were all in flats. I'm sure this is to be seen as different going against the grain but it seemed almost too forced and silly to me. In fact I found it somewhat distracting from the clothes rather than being an accessory to enhance.



I love flats and all but they just seemed so out of context, especially with the dressier items. I'm not sure they helped to create an ethereal look.

Patterns and Scale - Dior Spring Couture 2008

I wish that I had more time to immerse myself in all of the runway shows, especially Couture, because they level of fantasy and excess are best displayed there. And while I hope that more of that attention to detail will translate over to real life, I know that much of it can only live well when it is just "a dream".

In Galliano's Spring 2008 show for Dior, I was just swept away but what he presented. I loved the use of over-scaled patterns and silhouettes. You could see the very open and fresh-faced 60's mod influences, especially in the jewelry but you also see the intrigue and glamour (influenced by a favorite of mine - the Madame X Sargent painting) in the make-up (made especially sultry in the non-organic embellishments), and the nods to Klimt in much of the pieces' embellishments.



It was interesting that the tempered the excess of the clothes with a simple wardrobe of shoes. Yes, they, in and of themselves, are excessive but in using the same style (only varied in color and material) he kept the focus firmly on the clothes and helped to ground the variety of shapes, patterns and textures.



As the Manolo has said before, we are passing the zenith of this style of shoe. Especially when, you see a high-concept shoe on a couture runway concurrent with equally outlandish styles available for anyone to buy. Not just high-end, although they are there, but modified to a mass-market level.

Here are some examples all available now:

Guiseppe Zanotti at Piperlime - $750



Kors Michael Kors at Saks - $230



Nine West Taildrop - $79



Check out more of the show and detail shots on Style.com

Photo montage - Catwalk Queen & Shiny Style