Aperlai Shoes

Why don’t more stores carry Aperlai? As far as I can tell, the only major online retailers that offer the French brand’s shoes to the American market are Luisa Via Roma and Bergdorf Goodman, and those stores only carry a small selection of the company’s vast and completely covetable offerings. A quick glance through Aperlai Spring 2011 should be plenty to convince anyone that more stores should be taking an interest in what this label has to offer.

The collection includes everything from precise, everyday wearable closed-toe pumps and pristine piped loafers to outrageous fur-topped shoes and chunky, ultra-architectural platform booties in contrasting colors and textures, but the best designs have elements of both ends of the spectrum – a wearable shape with an outrageous material or an edgy shape in a neutral tone. Although it’s hard to pick any sort of winner at all; as with Miu Miu Fall 2011, I’d love to have every one of these designs in my closet. Hopefully more retailers will pick up what I’m putting down and stock this great, young brand in their stores.

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When you think about buying a high-end pair of heels, how much do you consider your physical comfort? Neophyte shoe company Aperlai hopes that you think about it quite a bit, given the chance – the brand’s Spring 2011 collection promises to combine added comfort features like extra padding and thicker heels to make its footwear even more appealing.

Even if these shoes didn’t promise to make your feet ache ever-so-slightly less than every other shoe brand out there, these designs would still be worth a look. The brand manages to work spring’s multicolor accessories trends into a very modern final product in such a way that it won’t disrupt a modern woman’s wardrobe; even with flashes of red and turquoise, most of these shoes still manage to read as neutrals. For even more evidence of this brand’s attention to detail, make sure to note the bits of lucite that mark the heel attachments of many of the shoes – it’s a little bit sexy, a little bit contemporary, and still totally wearable.

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