Inspiration = Flattery? Paris Hilton and Valentino

I just received an email from an online store and one of the shoes that were being promoted, a Paris Hilton heel, look insanely similar.  Except for materials, the Paris Hilton Senorita d'Orsay heels look just like Valentino's d'Orsay heels.

Can you tell which is which?

Shoe 1:

Shoe 2:

What do you think?  Is this making styles affordable for the mass shopper or leveraging(aka ripping off) the work and design talent of a higher-end brand?

As I've said before, inspiration is fine.  I get that.  But I feel brands and companies at all price-points can put out good and fun designs of their own without blatently copying the hard work of others.  I want cute styles at all levels and price points.  It IS doable!

SPOILER:

Did you guess correctly?

The top shoes are the Paris Hiltons - $94.99 at Heels.com (still not cheap if you ask me and trying to rip off the Louboutin red sole).

The second shoes are the Valentinos - in black at Bergdorf Goodman for $695 or in taupe and red at Nordstroms for $645.

Imitation = Flattery?

Last year I fell in love with these neon pink platform pumps from my favorite hit-or-miss designer, Stella McCartney. I ended up returning them because, even on me these were amazingly uncomfortable.



But I loved the color and had really loved their unusual reverse platform which was so distinctive.



So distinctive that Paris Hilton feels that it's the perfect element to rip-off and reinterpret in tacky faux-snakeskin vinyl.




Yes, this is one of the better shoes in her collection but I can't tell you if it will be more comfortable than the Stella because I will never try it on.

It's the principle of the thing! I have to have some standards.

Ladies, Please Brace Yourselves

I know you've all been waiting for this important announcement, so please prepare yourself.

The Paris Hilton shoe collection is here.

And yes. Yes, it is as bad I had feared. If you are actually interested, you can click here to view all of these overpriced, cheaply made, tacky shoes in their full glory.

These shoes give faux leather a bad name.

Blech!

A New Designer? Kira Plastinina

I may be totally out of the loop and horribly old fashioned, but not only had I never heard of Kira Plastinina but, now that I have, I'm kind of appalled.



It seems Miss Plastinina is a 15 year old Russian girl who has fashioned herself a "designer" and has somehow been able to create her own line and open almost 30 stores in Russian. She also has plans to open stores in the US this year.

Okay, I know how she was able to do this. And I don't think it's because she's some amazing talent or a fashion prodigy. It just so happens her father is worth something to the tune of $700 million.


Thanks, Daddy!

Her clothes are, obviously, targeted at the tween-teen-twenty-year-old, with lots of pink and purple, cutesy hearts and lots of bows and ruffles. What appalls me the most is not the fact that she really thinks she is a designer of the caliber of other trained designers, but that mainstream news and other fashion media are actually giving her coverage.



Here's your opportunity to check out all the pink shiny fabulosity. BTW, what is wrong with those models. They can't walk the runway at all. Dang.



Sadly, although obviously, the poor girl has decided that yet another useless celebutant is her fashion icon and has decided to design clothes that appeal to her tastes. Awesome. I really can't wait to see more younger girls embracing Paris-frickin'-Hilton as their muse.



And just like here in the US, it's not surprising that kids with more money than talent are able to play at designing. What's worse, is that there are those who embrace it, which will cheapen the entire industry.

Learn More:

Kira Plastina's site

Miss Couturable's take on privileged kids and the fashion industry