With visions of the utterly sublime Spring 2011 Lanvin shoe collection still dancing in my head, I was incredibly excited to see what Alber Elbaz and his crew of footwear designers would come up with for Lanvin Fall 2011. Because my expectations were so high, there was, in all likelihood, no way that Lanvin could have possibly met them. The shoes from this collection are quite good and will sell briskly, I have no doubt, but they’re missing the little bit of neo-industrialist magic that made me so wild about Lanvin’s spring shoes. Well, except for the wedge pump supported by distressed bronze scaffolding.

If there had been more shoes like that one and fewer black leather platform booties, I would have been elated. But Lanvin needs to sell shoes, and those are the types of designs that move units, even if they don’t move me. The ankle-strapped pumps provided a good middle ground between the shoes that will be loved by consumers and those that will be loved be fashion writers, and indeed they’re some of the best examples of that trend that we’ve seen come out of Fall 2011 collections.

Photos via Vogue.com.