As Nicholas Kirkwood’s terrific footwear line grows and picks up more and more retailers and famous fans, I admit that I expected his designs to skew a little more mainstream and retail-friendly. While Kirkwood has added a few exceptionally sharp money-making basics to his line, it still includes plenty of the edgy, sometimes strange shoes that made him a quickly rising star. Read More…

I didn’t think I’d ever have occasional to use the phrase “casual lucite” in either my personal or professional life, but that tends to be how shoe trends work. Just when you think something will never exist, an enterprising designer goes and creates it. In this case, two enterprising designers had the same idea, and the Chloe Patent Leather Toe Pumps and Vena Cava Lucite Heel Pumps both came to be at exactly the same time (but at significantly different price points). Read More…

Don’t get me wrong: I love fashion shows, I love covering them and I especially love all the attendant details like shoes and accessories that we get to talk about in these parts. I also love that I’m not one of the models clomping down runway after runway in often ill-fitting stilettos, because the scars on some of models’ feet make me wince just looking at them. Read More…

Like Christian Louboutin, Brian Atwood tends to release some of his more eccentric shoes for initial press previews, so don’t panic if the handful of shoes in the photos below don’t ring your bell. As always, Atwood’s collection will surely run the gamut from wearable classics to outrageous novelty shoes to be worn only by the most confident footwear aficionado, and in this group, there’s much more of the latter than the former. Read More…

When handbag maven Rebecca Minkoff announced her shoe line last year with promises that these would be the kind of shoes that you could wear all day without cursing your footwear decisions, I’ll admit to having been a bit dubious. A lot of designers pay lip service to the day-to-day needs of modern women but few kick more than a cursory flat or oxford our way when it comes time to sell us some shoes. Read More…

I know that a lot of people were fans of the camel craze that happened a few season back, both for aesthetic and practical reasons. I can see why it was so popular, even if I declined to participate. On the other hand, I cannot wait to whip out all of the brightly colored duds that I’ve started hoarding for spring – color blocking and brights are two of my favorite trends since…well, maybe ever. Read More…

It’s difficult to judge any Christian Louboutin collection off of just the first handful of preview photos; Louboutin releases one of the largest and most extensive lines in the footwear industry, spanning the design continuum from smart patent oxfords to towering crystal-encrusted stilettos, and he does so without seeming to break a sweat. So even if you don’t like the sprightly, whimsical shoes that have emerged from Christian Louboutin Fall 2011 so far, don’t worry. Read More…

Let me begin this review by saying that I really want to like the footwear from Celine Fall 2011. I think that understanding these finely crafted elfin shoes would somehow make me a better or more interesting person, and I’m always looking for opportunities to be better or more interesting. As it is, I guess I’m a dullard and dimwit, because I’m simply not picking up what Celine is putting down with this collection. Read More…