Whose Shoes Shoes

Photo via Style.com

Paging through Tommy Ton’s coverage of fashion show street style for Style.com is always fun, but when it comes time for Paris Couture Week, things always take a turn for the bold and slightly insane. And that’s the only way to describe the Natacha Marro Heelless Platforms in which Ton captured fashion icon Daphne Guinness trotting (or perhaps “tottering” would be a more apt term) around after a show.

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For the average footwear lover, having a pair of bespoke shoes is a lifelong fantasy. For Lady Gaga, it’s a day-to-day reality, most recently, Gaga has made waves in two pairs of custom-made cowboy boots by legendary American bootmaker Tony Lama, both themed around her new album Born This Way. We’ve got detailed shots of both pairs from the manufacturer, who says that creating these incredibly intricate boots took a crew of 20 people 500 man hours to complete.

These shoes may not be your style, but bootmaking is deeply American and a wonderful artistic tradition and I, for one, am glad to see someone as influential as Lady Gaga giving it some love. The level of hand-hewn detail work on these boots plus Gaga’s matte black pair warrants a closer look, which we have after the jump.

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I remember the first time that I ever saw a red Christian Louboutin sole. I was about 12 or 13, leafing through one of my mom’s copies of Vogue, and during that time period Condé Nast used an imagine of sky-high, lime green silk Louboutins, shot from the bag to reveal the sole, to advertise the magazine’s website. I did know that’s what they were at the time, but I remember doing a double take at the red lacquer and being blown away.

Over a decade later, when I see images like photoblogger Tommy Ton’s impromptu photograph of Elle senior style director Kate Lanphear swathed in black except for the red of her Louboutins, hurrying toward some surely fabulous event at New York Fashion Week, I’m still blown away. My eye goes directly to her shoes every time I see this photo, and then to the gentleman at the left whose attention she has clearly earned. With shoes like those, whose head wouldn’t turn?

Curious about Kate’s shoes? They’re the Christian Louboutin Misfit 150s, set to be released next month.

Check out more of Tommy Ton’s work at his blog, Jak and Jil.

TalkShoes detectives, I need your help. A reader sent in this photo asking if we could identify the utterly blingtastic shoes contained therein. Megs and I are both having brain farts, but perhaps one of you out there will be able to help your fellow reader out.

I seem to remember reading something recently about an ultra high-end (possibly Middle Eastern) shoe manufacturer opening its first outpost in the States (Vegas maybe?), and the company’s speciality is shoes with lots of intricate crystal work like these. Sadly, I can’t remember where I read about that brand and even if I could, I’m not sure if these shoes would be from them.

The only mainstream designer I can think of that makes shoes like this is Giuseppe Zanotti, but unless these are very limited edition, I can’t find any evidence of Zanotti producing them, but yet the workmanship and detail appears to be very high-end. They’re so sparkly and glamourous that I can’t help wonder who made them – do any of you have the answer? I’d love to see some of the brand’s other work.

How do I even explain Coco? She’s married to rapper and Law & Order: SVU star Ice-T, first of all, and she’s also the owner of a rather tremendous backside. She posts hilarious/graphic/oddly fascinating pictures on her Twitter account of various things (well, mostly her backside) and seems to be at least partially in on her own joke. She totally lives her character, which sort of reminds me of a non-singing stripper-y version of Lady Gaga. And I mean that in the nicest way possible – I think she’s totally awesome.

Coco’s also a self-professed shoe addict who only wears heels and has previously posted pictures of herself lifting weights in lucite platforms (don’t even ask me how I know all of this). For anyone that questions her commitment to shoes, the picture above should take away any doubt. In the enlarged version, you can see everything from brands like Aldo and Steve Madden to several rows of Louboutins, all of which look like they’ve been worn – she obviously doesn’t buy them just to look at them. Coco says that’s only one wall of her collection, which seems to span every price point and only one heel height: high.

View the full size photo here!

Picture via Coco’s Twitter account. (Be careful, her Twitter is racy. Open at your own risk. Not safe for work. Possibly not safe for life.)

Who wore the gorgeous Brian Atwood Cristal Pumps from the Fall Winter 2010 collection?

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Who wore the fierce heelless platforms from Noritaka Tatehana?

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Who wore the Nicholas Kirkwood Sprayed Suede Lace-Up Sandals recently while being photographed in the airport?

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Who wore the Brian Atwood Black Nappa Leather with Silk Embroidery “Elli” Pumps to the premiere of a movie she stars in?

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