Sunday, August 19, 2007

The Want Monster Has Me By the Neck

Ow. The Want Monster is worrying me, chomping on my tender flesh and drawing a little blood.

I want this shoe:


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(Prada. Also available at Neiman Marcus.)

I have been wanting this shoe for quite some time now -- since I saw it in the Prada F/W '07 runway show. It's an odd shoe, but I am deeply enamored of it. First of all, I've always loved an ombré effect. Secondly, not only is it ombré, it's ombré patent leather. (And we know how I feel about patent leather, non?) This shoe is elegantly simple -- two large bands across the foot (that are very comfortable, since they're nice & wide and won't cut into your dainty little feets) and a really beautiful slightly underslung heel. Check out this view from the runway:

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(My sense of adventure, however, will not be extending to the half-foot tights. Unless I'm taking a modern dance class, of course.)

The heel seems to have been straightened out a little bit for production, which I think is a shame, but that isn't dampening the shoe-lust that is frothing in my soul one single bit.

When I first started talking about this shoe, a few of my friends raised their eyebrows, but I knew, with my unerring Style Spy-dey sense, that this was the shoe of the season; and since then it has shown up everywhere, including this gorgeous spread in Vogue featuring Natalia Vodianova in some pretty darned fabulous evening gowns.



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(I just love her -- such a great model.)

What I really love about the styling of these photos is the contrast of the very solid, almost bulky shoe and the long sinuous lines of the gowns. It's a great proportion, and very happening right now. There are a lot of good anchor shoes out there this season -- look at all the ankle booties and high-heeled oxfords popping up with skirts and dresses.

The shoe is so very much the thing that Nine West has already ripped it off, to pretty good although not-quite-spectacular effect. Usually it takes them a season to get to something -- witness their version of the satin Miu Miu mary janes from spring.

So this is going to be my big shoe purchase this fall (in a size 39, in case anyone wants to send a belated birthday present). It's going to take a while to get to it, but I'm determined. With these and my as-yet-unearthed perfect pair of red ankle booties, I'll be set.

What are you looking at for the fall? Any must-haves?

Photos: Saks.com, style.com

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd been lusting after those for a while with the smoky rose to grey ombré but when I saw them in person yesterday at Neimans I had to restrain myself from licking the display.

The grey ombré Stewies for the NM centennial are great too, but I'm just not sure they'll do anymore.

Alexandra said...

Those are gorgeous!
I haven't started making fall wish-lists yet, plus my footwear budget for the month has gone the way of athletic/outdoors footwear...but those are gorgeous!!!