We can trace this trend back to September 2011, when Louis Vuitton showed its Spring 2012 collection, full of pumps and mules with pointed, silver-capped toes. Stuart Weitzman followed with a line of pastel leather pumps with similar capped toes, and now, virtually every brand has some sort of toe situation going on for Fall 2012. Like the inspiration, most of the options go with a metallic cap in silver or gold, but some brands have found a way to make the look their own by experimenting with glitter, studs and tonal texture. Read More…

Unlike most other shoe designers (except for maybe the best of Christian Louboutin and Charlotte Olympia on a very good day), I feel as though I can sit and look at a pair of Nicholas Kirkwood shoes for hours. Kirkwood’s design work is detailed, modern and, at least to me, utterly fascinating. Even in most of his simplest shoes, he finds a way to take something I expected to see and change it just enough to make me stare. Read More…

The Isabel Marant Boston Sneaker Wedges are a bit more subdued than the world-famous Bekket version, but I’m betting that’ll make them more appealing to some poeple – it’s an opportunity to get a piece of the trend from the original source without owning the exact same pair of shoes as so many other people. At the time of this post, they’re available for $685 via Net-a-Porter in a full range of sizes, which is a small miracle in and of itself. Read More…

Well, first of all, the Edmundo Castillo Chad Suede Booties have mad profile. They have profile in spades. Shoes are a piece of clothing that can be seen no matter the position of the wearer, and they have to be designed to be viewed from all angles. That’s fairly unique in the accessories world – jewelry and handbags generally have one section or side that’s seen far more often than the others, which provides an easy focal point for design. Read More…

Last week, I said that a pair of Pierre Hardy shoes looked like science to me. I still stand behind that sentiment as being accurate, but now, I’ve found a pair of shoes about which it’s even more accurate: the Christian Louboutin Lady Peep Geek Pumps. You guys are smart, so I bet you can guess exactly why that is. Read More…

Children’s stories give us some of our greatest shoe references of all time. The first ones that come to mind are, of course, Cinderella’s glass slipper and Dorothy’s ruby slippers, and I bet you can figure out which one the Jimmy Choo Trust Glitter Pumps borrow from heavily. (Hint: It’s not the glass ones.)

Dorothy’s ruby slippers were shaped differently back then, of course – stilettos weren’t yet the norm in women’s footwear during the Wizard of Oz era – but if the movie were to be remade today, I could see these Choos take a starring role. Read More…

Someone mark it down on the calendar: Today, August 14, 2012, I found a pair of Christian Louboutin Daffodils that I like. I’m generally quite a Louboutin fan, but the appeal of the Daffodils has always eluded me. The enormous platform and spindly stiletto have always seemed so off-balance and graceless, not only in the design but also in the actual, functional utilization of the shoe. Read More…

You guys have seen This is Spinal Tap, right? For the uninitiated, it’s a classic documentary-style parody of the arena metal band lifestyle, and one of its most famous gags is that the band’s amps go to 11. Normal amps have loudness settings between 1 and 10, but because Spinal Tap is just so metal, its amps go up just a little bit further. Read More…