Ready for Ready-To-Wear

My favorite shoe designer, Miss Henrietta "Hetty Rose" is bringing her custom-crafted bespoke shoes to a wider audience by launching her ready-to-wear line.

Hetty has made a name for herself by creating beautiful designs and pairing them with unique vintage kimono fabrics sourced from Japan and antique jewels and embellishments.

I have been lucky enough to purchase several of her pieces - the Ella mary jane, the Love platforms and the Amalie pump - all crafted with the most amazing fabrics ever.

And while Hetty is continuing to create and craft her bespoke lines, she has not created ready-to-wear shoes that have the same adorable style and gorgeous fabrics.   The line is made up of 5 of the top favorite styles and they are all still made using vintage kimono fabrics.  They are manufactured in a small family-run factory in London and will be available in UK sizes 4, 5, 6 and 7 with prices starting from £180.

Yuki 

Haruka 

Mika 

Kiki

You can see all of the styles and detailed images here.

Pre-ordering is starting now for deliveries in October/November so make sure to drop her an email to get the process going and reserve your pair today!

Back to Bespoke

Vintage Kimono Fabric from Hetty Rose

Almost a year ago I told you about my experience having a pair of bespoke Amalie heels made for me by the incomparable Henrietta of Hetty Rose.

At that time Hetty had done her first Kimono collection featuring twelve styles that could be custom made to your specifications from a selection of vintage kimono fabrics. Now Hetty is back with a second collection which has all new designs and includes adorable clutches as well. She's also received a ton of press coverage as well. Be warned, this post is very image heavy!

What I love about the whole process is getting to interact with the creator on a personal level. When I got back in touch with Henrietta she was on a buying trip in Japan, searching out new fabrics. She was also in country for the cherry blossom festival and sent me some surreally beautiful shots from there.

One of the first shoes in the new collection which caught my eye was the adorable Ella mary jane. It's just super cute and has a great chunky heel with front stitching down the toe. If you go to the press page you can see if has already been featured in several magazines.



Well I had to have it. As was done the previous time, Henrietta sent me a variety of fabrics to choose from and I decided on this very intricate and metallic phoenix pattern.













I like the way each shoe is individual. And, of course, the riot of colors!











They are just so cute on that I can't get over them!

As I was reading through all of the new press coverage Hetty Rose had received I came upon these articles: one, two, three. It seems Henrietta paired with theatrical wig designer Yuki Saito to create a special display for Valentine's Day and created these amazing "Love" shoes for the pairing.



Well, I fell for them. Hard. I especially love the platform element. And although they were not a part of her regular line, she agreed to make them for me.



I was lucky enough that Henrietta still had some of the same fabric that she used to create the original pair. I did make one change to the design. Knowing that I'm not going to get many opportunities to wear these with the ties wrapped up above my knee, I asked for them to be just long enough to tie around my ankle.







Oh, yes, they are super tall, but given the platform and that they are made to measure, they are very easy to wear.







I like the heart-shaped peep-toes too!





What's also cool is that the straps are not attached to the shoes. So I can wear these with and with out the leather ties. The beaded hearts just clip on, so I can adjust where they go, either on the shoes or on the ties.



A-dor-a-ble!









I know I've said this before, but she does amazing work. If you have the opportunity, drop Henrietta an email and work with her on a pair of shoes. She is a true artist. Not only will you be supporting her art, but you will be avoiding the the huge manufacturing machine and preserving a small piece of history.

Ensemble du Jour

The Outfit
I've been very excited about my new socks from Tabio which are reminiscent of the Prada socks and have been pining away for a chance to wear them. As these are a bit adventurous for my neck of the woods, I wanted to "test" them out on a day I knew I didn't have any external meetings.

I started planning my outfit the night before but found when I was putting everything on that the reality was a bit more challenging than I planned. It was kind of a struggle to find the right balance - I went through a few shoe and skirt wardrobe changes in the process. What I ended up with is my new grey kimono sweater from Gap, a stretchy pencil skirt from Victoria's Secret, my Etsy flower pin and the charcoal and burnt orange knee socks from Tabio.




I struggled with the shoe pairing because I wanted to balance the chunky socks but still be able to see the colors. So I ended up with these pewter Franco Sarto ankle-strap heels.



Cool stripes, huh?



The shoes by themselves...



The Focal Point
The socks, of course. Duh!



They're sporty and warm and kinda sex-ay! Or at least I think so.

Building a Fall Wardrobe - Part 1

I know everyone is buzzing about the fall shows, especially the New York shows. There's coverage of each designer and those in the audience and folks on the street and in the general vicinity. While I like sifting through all the great pictures, I'm more interested in buy stuff for me to wear now.

But I'm not shopping in any couture houses any time soon. Heck, I'm barely going to make it into JCrew based on my shoe shopping habits. So I've been shopping from the versatile options at Target and Gap to start.

I tried to be a little more organized with my purchasing this year so that I wasn't randomly buying stuff. I'm also trying to keep my new purchases in the palette of black, greys, reds and greens. I wanted to get some lighter sweaters and I needed new jeans. I also wanted a dress to wear with my new tights and the Nine West booties, I might get.

So here's what I got from the Gap. Their sweaters are very soft from the cashmere woven in, but not 100%, which I think is better. I got:

• a fun sweater dress with grey and black stripes
• two light sweaters in dark green and red
• long-sleeve t-shirt in bright green
• two kimono sleeve heavier sweaters in black and charcoal
• Long and Lean jeans
• low-top red Converse Chuck Taylors - fun for casual days!

These are my first purchases. I got a bunch of stuff at Target and may supplement with some JCrew sweaters too. Gap has been doing some sales, so I highly recommend gettin' on over there!

Beauteous Bespoke

Bespoke is defined as:

- adjective
British.
a. (of clothes) made to individual order; custom-made

One of the great things about the Internet is the ability to connect with new up-and-coming designers from around the world and to be able to purchase items that are unique with amazing craftsmanship. You can collaborate with these designers and have items halfway around the world created to your specifications and then shipped directly to you.

One designer that I was completely taken with is Hetty Rose shoes. She has beautiful and interesting designs, but what sets her apart is that she creates them using vintage kimono fabric. I fell in love with the Amalie style. It really shows off the design of the fabric. What I also like is that both shoes will be different based on how the fabric drapes on the shoe.



After speaking with Henrietta about the shoe I wanted, she sent me a list of measurements needed. So we traced my feet, took some pictures, filled in the dimensions and sent them off to her to match up with a last in my size.


Henrietta had just gone to Japan on a fabric buying trip and provided me of pictures of 5 or so fabric options to choose from. I have to tell you - it was difficult to decide. The designs were beautiful - so full of color and interest. I debated a while between a two of the fabrics but in the end I chose this pattern.



The colors were very vibrant and I liked how the white background would make them pop!

Then it was time to pick my heel. I had four options to decide between: a skinnier heel, a more curvy chunky heel, the wood heel below or the wood heel covered in fabric as it was shown on the website. Because I wanted to showcase as much of the fabric as possible, I picked the wood heel covered in the fabric.



Henrietta sent me updates about how my shoes were progressing and event sent me photos of the work in progress. Here is my fabric on the last and cut out ready to be assembled. We did have one running change when she found a small smudge on the toe fabric of one shoe. It was easily solved by adding a signature Hetty Rose peep-toe. You can see the proposed placement in the top image.





A few weeks and they are done! Henrietta sent me pictures of my finished beauties before carefully wrapping them up and winging them away to America! Didn't they turn out great!



I love the mix of black, yellow, pink, salmon and red.



The leather inside is very very soft and the hand-stitching around the peep-toe and the edges is a playful touch. One of my favorite parts is that the sole of the shoe says "Hand Made with Love by Hetty Rose".

They are so eye-catching. I got tons of compliments and inquiries about them.

Prices vary by style and fabric, etc., but they well within the range of other non-custom designer shoes. I would highly recommend her. Plus, how often do you get to say that you have the only pair in the world of these shoes.