Lust In My Soles

The other day I told you that there were so many, many gorgeous-beyond-belief shoes in the Alexander McQueen show that they would need a separate post. Well, here it is!

I know I showed you these the other day but they were so good I thought they deserved a reprise. I'm just completely gaga for the shape of these shoes. They're substantial without being clunky, and so, so sexy. Most of the shoes from the show riffed on this theme.

Here we have what looks like black patent with a silver toe cap. The silver cap is the bit that gives me pause here -- I never wear silver, and so that turns me off a bit. At the risk of being far too matchy-matchy, I'd have trouble with that, since I like all my metals to be the same. (I only carry gold doubloons in my wallet.)

These are the first ones again -- the detail photos are much better on Elle.com than on Style.com, and it seems as though the lighting in this show made some rather dramatic changes as it went on, but who cares, just mmmmmmm, look at the pretty, pretty red shoes that Style Spy covets mightily.

Okay, no problem with the silver toe caps here, because they have very cleverly been left off completely! Let me count the ways I love this:
1. Reptile
2. Peep toe
3. Ankle strap
4. Pink
'Nuff said.

Here we have silver satin trimmed in leather. This gives a good shot of the gorgeous square throat of this shoe, and I really love an interior platform, because it helps with the heel height. (And that is a mighty high heel, it's got to be a good 4 1/2 inches.)

If I ever get my hands on this shoe, I'll probably spend our first day together curled up in a corner of my couch with it resting on my lap, crooning to myself quietly and occasionally rubbing it against my cheek. I'll have to be careful not to let the tears leave watermarks on the satin.

Although, the satin might cause me to go more for these instead:

Satin shoes generally make me nervous. I'm the sort of person who often kicks her heels together when she walks, and that can be rough on fabric shoes. I'll risk it with a color fabric that won't show wear as much, but I think that fuchsia, much as I adore it (And oh, I do -- he used a lot of it in this collection and it delighted me. I've been having a bit of a fuchsia moment lately.) would be a bad risk. Now, these beautiful things, being made of snakeskin, might not be all that much sturdier than the satin, but we have solved that problem by making the shoe a slingback! Genius! Seriously, this thing... I just love that red trim on the snakeskin -- there's a wonderful pair of Blahniks this season at Neiman Marcus that I fell head over well... heels for, but these, dare I say it, are even better.

The red is definitely patent, and I think the gold is, too, but it may also be some sort of fabulous fabric.

I think I love these most of all:

Again with the feathers. And the pale pink satin. So delicate, so beautiful, so ethereal. I really love that at first glance it reads like a little chiffon ruffle -- it's only on closer inspection that you realize they're feathers. I would get over my Fear of Satin pretty damn fast if it meant gettin' those on my hooves. I just want to talk again about how much I love that snubbed toe. It's gotten a lot of play from a number of shoe designers the last couple of seasons, and I think it's a great look. It's still narrow enough to be feminine and sexy, but not as overtly so as a pointed toe. And it provides for a little more room at the front of the shoe, which is not a bad thing for most of us, without being that horrible wide platypus bill of a square toe we were wearing (what were we thinking??) in the late 90s.

In case a few feathers weren't enough... Is it over the top? Maybe. Do I care? Heavens, no! Style Spy almost always comes down firmly on the side of Nothing Succeeds Like Excess. (Tasteful excess, of course, which does make it a lot trickier.) Speaking of which...

I think I would wear these, but with the ankle ties around the actual ankles, and only one or two butterflies. I've never liked that high wrapping of ankle ties, climbing up the leg to the knee like that. It looks awfully affected to my eye, and as you can see, in order to keep them up there they have to be tied tightly enough to risk losing your lower leg to gangrene. (And also, it reminds me of this mess:

Which none of us wants, under any circs, to emulate. That outfit, as my friend Plumcake says, makes my slappin' hand itch.)

Here's some ties done more to my liking, although I might wrap them around once more. Those are so long I think I'd worry about stepping on them. Love the simplicity of these, though, and the luxe-ness of the gold tassels. I generally approve of tassels, with a few exceptions.

See, these are goth in the good kind of way. Not the Hot Topic, sullen 19-year old, black Wet & Wild nail polish kind of way, but the Catherine Deneuve in "The Hunger" kind of way -- slightly scary but still sexy.

And I'll just throw in that while I really liked these beautiful lace... um... gosh, what would you call these?

Socks? Spats? (Actually, it looks like they're pantyhose with the lace detailing around the ankles.) Whatever they are, the lace is certainly beautiful, and I'm all for using old materials in new & interesting ways, but I'm not thinking these are going to capture the imagination of the fashion public in any serious way.

Hey, ya know, while we're at it, let's chat for a moment about the purses McQueen showed. 'Cause they were fantastic.

These gorgeous clutches had handles on the back to slip the fingers through.

Oh! The red croc!! Oh!! See, I could get over my matchy-matchy fears if this was one of the things that was matching. No such thing as too much red croc, in Style Spy's opinion.

That's a lot of snakeskin. And I say that in approving tones.

Good googly-moogly, that's spectacular. I don't remember McQueen showing this many bags in a collection before, I worry that he's succumbing to the pressure to create an It Bag to float his line, and that's never good. On the other hand -- that bag? IS good. Really, really good.

Still I am dying for a perfect little jewel box of a clutch, like these. I adore the one with the tassels, it looks like a perfume bottle.

It begs for a really good manicure, that little purse.

Okay, so there you have 'em. Beautiful accessories from my darling Alexander. Looking at these caused my feet to sweat lustfully and my wallet to quiver with trepidation. Anything catch your eye?

Photos: Style.com, Elle.com, Associated Press

Imaginary Friends in High Places

Ooooh! Look what my buddy Alexander McQueen made for me!

Look at it up close:

And from the back...

Honestly, I don't think I've seen many things more beautiful than this dress. Once again, McQueen has created a garment that raises a positive bloodlust in me. Looking at this dress gives me the same feelings that werewolves must get when the full moon rises: I want to howl and run mad, I want to wear that dress so badly it's painful, down in my gut. This, too:

That blouse is so beautiful I could cry. I adore this silhouette, the 1940s/Blade Runner/geisha look of it. So elegant.

This collection was a tribute to the late, great Isabella Blow, who passed away this year. Isabella Blow discovered and nurtured McQueen, they were friends and she was a source of inspiration to him. She played the same role for Philip Treacy, the Mad Hatter millinery genius who was responsible for Blow's always-wonderful headgear and for the hats in this particular show. Treacy took a bow along with McQueen after this show, and quite rightly so, I think. Absolute works of art, these things.

A cloud of butterflies. Can you imagine? I know this is a showpiece, but honestly, I would wear that hat. I have no idea where, but given the opportunity I would swan around wearing that and a beatific smile on my face. I cannot imagine it possible to be anything other than giddy with happiness while wearing one's own private flock of butterflies.

This would also make me smile:

Actually, perhaps not. That would more likely make me purr in a sultry manner, my eyes narrowed as I surveyed the room, searching for my next victim. Granted, once I found him, I wouldn't be able to have dinner with him -- imagine navigating those sleeves around your mesclun salad. No, this is strictly a cocktail-drinking dress, meant for breathtaking entrances and irresistible languid posing on the sofa. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

So here's something a bit more practical:

Good googly-moogly, would you look at the shape of that jacket? Look at the waist, and the curve of the hip. McQueen's jackets are always good

He got his start on Savile Row and his tailoring shows it. I have a velvet jacket of his that's cut like the shorter one above, and wearing that thing is as good as wearing a corset, the way it creates this tiny little nipped-waist and perfectly balanced hourglass silhouette. Look at this one:

Wow. And please note the detailing of that neckline:

Feathers. Tiny little dyed feathers instead of a ruffle. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?

McQueen uses feathers and wing imagery a lot in his work, and sometimes it's fierce

and sometimes just poetically lovely

I'm really moved by Alexander McQueen's clothes. There's something so unrepentantly passionate about them -- I really get the feeling that I have a good idea of who this man is from looking at the clothing he designs, and I just love that. He seems like someone for whom beauty is one of the prime motivators for living, and his definitions of what is beautiful can be strange and challenging. I love the way he ebbs and flows in his design, stretching out in new directions and then coming back to things he's used before and finding new ways to present them. I think his designs must be very personal, and that they reveal a person I would like a great deal. Look at this dress:

Cathy Horyn wrote about this dress in her New York Times review of this collection:
"In the front of a chic black sequined dress, its image traced in gold beads that were partly concealed by the sequins, was a portrait of Ms. Blow by the photographer Steven Meisel. You could see it only from an angle."

How lovely.

So is this lovely

Wildly, distractingly, jaw-droppingly so. Going on record here and saying that this is the It Shoe of Fall 2008. Oh, child, fetch me my salts -- the snub toe and the skinny heel and the tiny hint of toe cleavage... I am definitely going to need a pair of these shoes. (Better start saving now, I reckon.)

Actually, there were a LOT of mesmerizing shoes in this show -- so many that they're going to get a post all to themselves in a day or two. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, go take a look at the complete collection and tell me what you think. And Alexander? (Al? Alex? Ally?) I'm going to be in London for a few days in November. I would really, really love to buy you a drink and find out all about you. Let's go somewhere dim & clubby with great big comfy chairs. You can tell me about your best friends and why you love them, and your favorite meals, and the books you read when you need to relax, and what your favorite smells are. We'll talk poetry and romance and why wearing a beautiful dress makes getting out of bed in the morning worthwhile.

I'll try not to swoon.

Photos: Style.com

Mowers and Shakers

I'm still gradually trawling through all the shows from the last few weeks. At first I was kind of frantic to get through all of them in a timely manner and report back, but after a day or two, when I realized that evidently when you sign a lease in New York City these days it also contractually obligates you to show a collection at Fashion Week (good googly-moogly -- dozens & dozens of them!) I lost a bit of enthusiasm. About which I felt bad for approximately ten minutes, until I remembered that what was showing in the runways is Fall 2008, but what is actually in the stores is Fall 2007, and then I got over it completely. We have pleeeeeenty of time to weed through all this stuff.

Zac Posen's inspirations for his latest show were evidently cited as "Days of Heaven, the Shakers, and the wheat fields of the Great Plains." Ummm, okay. Days of Heaven I can kind of go with, because it's one of the most beautiful movies ever filmed. I've always loved Shaker furniture, certainly. I guess what we're headed toward is something severe, tailored, simple. That sounds good.

And sometimes he does a lovely job with this:

Except for the bonnet. The bonnet is just silly.

Great pantsuit. Beautiful proportions.

I just love this.

All of these looks are beautifully tailored (which Posen does so well, which is especially impressive to me since he's like, 12 years old) and really quite wearable, elegant pieces. I'm smitten with the long lean look of them.

But sometimes young Zac took his inspiration a wee bit too literally...

Look, it's wheat! Because it's inspired by... wheat! Get it???

I don't care if it's a glammed-up bonnet, it's still a bonnet, and no woman wants to look like Baby Huey after a session with the Bedazzler.

Then there were some pieces that didn't really fit into the scheme of things, but Posen is a big red carpet go-to guy, and he has to provide his BFFs like Natalie Portman with some party dresses.

I predict we see the blue one at the next Hollywood awards show -- various raccoon-eyed stylists are frantically barking at their Treos as you read this, hoping to secure that gown for their recently-detoxed clients.

I absolutely love the fabric being used here, like a watercolor painting or a cloudy sky (one over a wheatfield, perhaps?). The short dress is lovely, but the long ones are a bit... well, that's not just a cloudy sky, that's an impending hurricane, right there. Good grief, you'd better hope it's not windy when you wear that dress.

And then there were a few looks that the most generous of us could really only describe as head-scratchers...

Crop circles? The wheat field after the thresher has come through?

High-fashion feather duster. He cannot be serious.

Maybe if Cher became a Shaker, but otherwise...

As usual, Posen's handbags are gorgeous

but as we say in my neck of the woods, he sure is proud of 'em. (For those of you who don't speak Southern, that means "damned expensive.")

I have to give Posen a lot of credit, given, as I said, that he is such a youngster -- only 27 years old and a relative newcomer to the biz. He has impeccable credentials (Central Saint Martins, the Met Costume Institute), he knows how to cut, and he likes to make women look gorgeous, which can make a guy pretty popular. His first few collections were heavy on the 1940's retro-glam, but he's moved away from that to more adventurous things, which I was really happy to see. Silver Screen Siren is a great look, but it does not a noteworthy design career make (do you hear me, Misters Badgley & Mischka?). I liked a lot of things about this collection, and it's also a good illustration of the silhouette that's developing right now -- long, lean, tailored, close to the body. (With the exception of the hot air balloon dresses, of course.) Get out your ThighMasters, friends, the days of the hourglass are numbered.

Photos: Style.com