At the risk of turning this blog into All Me, All the Time (which is most decidedly not its purpose), I have to share my other amazing find from last weekend with you.
I've been in the market for a good nude shoe. A nude shoe is something I've come to feel is a must-have in a woman's shoe wardrobe. Got a dress that's an odd color-- too light to wear with a black shoe but nothing else in the closet quite works? A nude shoe is your answer. Want your legs to look longer? Nude shoe. Want to wear great footwear but not steal focus from your outfit? Nude shoe. So I've been keeping an eye peeled for one, in a good, close-to-my-skintone nude, which is of course different for everyone. This weekend at the NM outlet I stumbled across these bad boys:
They're Brian Atwood. These are my first pair of Atwoods and something tells me they aren't going to be my last. What a great shoe, huh? The strap across the front is thin enough to be sexy but not so thin it bites into my feet. They're pretty bare, almost basic, but that snake-printed leather on the quarter and heel make them special without distracting from the overall nude effect. And that wide ankle strap is very on point right now -- shoes with substantial straps and heels are what we're looking at all summer going into fall & winter, I think. And the leather? Is very, very nice. Soft and obviously very high quality. But the best part was yet to come. I flipped over the shoe to look at the price tag. They were already substantially reduced, since they were at the outlet. But the little colored stamp on the tag told me that they were even further reduced another 50%!! Woo-hoo! But then, in the midst of my Bargain Rush, I noticed something else on the bottom of the right shoe. It was this:
This shoe is autographed. This shoe is actually signed by its designer, Brian Atwood.
I was gobsmacked. He must have done a personal appearance at a Neiman Marcus somewhere in this part of the country and somehow no one took these little darlings home. Which just seems absurd to me. I have no idea how these perfect, gorgeous, autographed designer shoes came to be resting in their original box (with their dustbag) at about an 80% reduction of original cost, but I didn't take the time to think about it much. I just snapped 'em up.
I've come to think that the way I have the shoes tied above is the way they were intended to be worn, but I'm not entirely sure. Saturday night, when I wore them out with my new wonderful YSL dress, I wore them like this:
But upon reflection, those ties just seem too long to be meant to flap like that. On the other hand, they're kind of funky that way, and they are awfully thick to be meant to be tied in a bow. And they're not quite long enough to wrap around another time and knot in the back. What do you think? Back bow or front knot? I've placed a poll in the right-hand column of the blog, I want everyone to give me their input.
I wore these darlings out Saturday night to a "fashion show" (about which the less said, the better -- not exactly Bryant Park, this) with the fabulous Plumcake, and then on to a friend's birthday party. I lost track of how many of my female friends (not Plumcake, mind you, she & I are of like minds when it comes to footwear) asked me -- and I mean their first question upon looking down at my feet -- "Are they comfortable?"
I wish people would stop asking me this. Number one -- they're four-inch heels. As I have talked about here before, there is a different standard for comfort in a high heel. Number two -- look at them! When a shoe looks like that, how much does comfort matter? I am not going to be hiking the outback in these shoes, folks. They are for standing around and looking fabulous. (And, just for the record, they are plenty comfy for doing that.)
Imagine you know someone who is a big art collector, and over drinks they share with you their excitement about winning a fabulous piece of art -- a Rauschenberg or a Rothko -- for an amazing price at an auction.
And your response is, "Does it match your couch?"
That's about how I feel when people ask me if my shoes are comfortable. I don't buy them for comfort. Just like I don't buy art because it goes with the color scheme in my apartment.
::sigh::
A note to Austin area readers -- I made lovely new friend at the Austin Last Call this weekend. She's an SA in the Couture Dept., her name is Susan and the next time you're down there I strongly recommend that you take advantage of her services. She's warm, friendly, helpful, and most importantly, knowledgeable. Pretty much everything you want in an SA. Go visit with her.
Photos: Style Spy
They're Brian Atwood. These are my first pair of Atwoods and something tells me they aren't going to be my last. What a great shoe, huh? The strap across the front is thin enough to be sexy but not so thin it bites into my feet. They're pretty bare, almost basic, but that snake-printed leather on the quarter and heel make them special without distracting from the overall nude effect. And that wide ankle strap is very on point right now -- shoes with substantial straps and heels are what we're looking at all summer going into fall & winter, I think. And the leather? Is very, very nice. Soft and obviously very high quality. But the best part was yet to come. I flipped over the shoe to look at the price tag. They were already substantially reduced, since they were at the outlet. But the little colored stamp on the tag told me that they were even further reduced another 50%!! Woo-hoo! But then, in the midst of my Bargain Rush, I noticed something else on the bottom of the right shoe. It was this:
This shoe is autographed. This shoe is actually signed by its designer, Brian Atwood.
I was gobsmacked. He must have done a personal appearance at a Neiman Marcus somewhere in this part of the country and somehow no one took these little darlings home. Which just seems absurd to me. I have no idea how these perfect, gorgeous, autographed designer shoes came to be resting in their original box (with their dustbag) at about an 80% reduction of original cost, but I didn't take the time to think about it much. I just snapped 'em up.
I've come to think that the way I have the shoes tied above is the way they were intended to be worn, but I'm not entirely sure. Saturday night, when I wore them out with my new wonderful YSL dress, I wore them like this:
But upon reflection, those ties just seem too long to be meant to flap like that. On the other hand, they're kind of funky that way, and they are awfully thick to be meant to be tied in a bow. And they're not quite long enough to wrap around another time and knot in the back. What do you think? Back bow or front knot? I've placed a poll in the right-hand column of the blog, I want everyone to give me their input.
I wore these darlings out Saturday night to a "fashion show" (about which the less said, the better -- not exactly Bryant Park, this) with the fabulous Plumcake, and then on to a friend's birthday party. I lost track of how many of my female friends (not Plumcake, mind you, she & I are of like minds when it comes to footwear) asked me -- and I mean their first question upon looking down at my feet -- "Are they comfortable?"
I wish people would stop asking me this. Number one -- they're four-inch heels. As I have talked about here before, there is a different standard for comfort in a high heel. Number two -- look at them! When a shoe looks like that, how much does comfort matter? I am not going to be hiking the outback in these shoes, folks. They are for standing around and looking fabulous. (And, just for the record, they are plenty comfy for doing that.)
Imagine you know someone who is a big art collector, and over drinks they share with you their excitement about winning a fabulous piece of art -- a Rauschenberg or a Rothko -- for an amazing price at an auction.
And your response is, "Does it match your couch?"
That's about how I feel when people ask me if my shoes are comfortable. I don't buy them for comfort. Just like I don't buy art because it goes with the color scheme in my apartment.
::sigh::
A note to Austin area readers -- I made lovely new friend at the Austin Last Call this weekend. She's an SA in the Couture Dept., her name is Susan and the next time you're down there I strongly recommend that you take advantage of her services. She's warm, friendly, helpful, and most importantly, knowledgeable. Pretty much everything you want in an SA. Go visit with her.
Photos: Style Spy
5 comments:
Those are indeed fabulous. I've been trying for the last 3 years to find a very basic nude pump (pref. 3" heel) with no luck. Everything is either camel or ecru right now.
Gorgeous!! AND with a signature..AND on sale..the mind reels!!!
I finally found "python" nude sling-backs and they are perfect except they are too wide. And I only noticed it after wearing them a couple of times - so impossible to return. I tried tightening the buckle but it didn't help. Any suggestions on how to make a medium shoe fit a narrow foot?
~Tessa
Whenever I have an ankle tie fiasco, I just tuck them in. It's soooo much more neat. If you could try some knot trick and have them more streamlined, say... like a tie's knot to the sides that would be pretty nice too! Gorgeous shoes!
Love them and tie at back is best I am sure to call attention to beautiful back detail.K
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