Yves Saint Laurent Shoes

Yves Saint Laurent Cardilam Loafer Pump, $795 via Neiman Marcus

The Yves Saint Laurent Cardilam Loafer Pumps were one of the most buzzed-about runway shoes of the Spring 2012 shows, and now they’ve finally landed at one of our favorite retailers for your pre-ordering pleasure. Act fast, though; as of this writing, only three sizes are left!

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Images via Vogue.com

Stefano Pilati’s spot at the top of Yves Saint Laurent is as precarious as it ever has been, with rumors that Raf Simmons of Jil Sander will take his place hanging over the Yves Saint Laurent Spring 2012 collection. Will it be Pilati’s last? If it is, he’s going out on a positive note, footwear included.

There’s something alluring about the metal plates that adorn all of the YSL spring shoes in various ways. I’m particularly partial to the smooth gold shields that cross the fronts of suede loafers in various colors, although I’m betting that the metal-capped toes will do better at general retail. Are you digging the heavy hardware look?

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Yves Saint Laurent Accordion Wedge Boots, $1595 via Net-a-Porter

Ladies and gentlemen of TalkShoes, to borrow a bit of Internet language, I am disappoint.

Even though I’ve seen what seems like a dozen variations on Yves Saint Laurent’s accordion wedges since they first debuted on the runway six months ago, I still looked at this picture of the Yves Saint Laurent Accordion Wedge Boots and immediately thought, “Wow, a cutout version! These are easily the best ones!” Well, they’re not actually cutouts at all. Even so, they still might be the best.

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I’m beginning to feel a bit of respect for Yves Saint Laurent and the platforms that made the brand a footwear powerhouse. Yes, fashion may have decided to embrace a platformless pump at the moment, and YSL has humored them by released a few of those as well. But when it comes to a workhorse, consumer friendly collection like Yves Saint Laurent Resort 2012, the brand went straight back to its bread and butter: The vertiginous heel with a platform to match.

These shoes have the plucky nautical sensibility to match the brand’s terrific Resort 2012 ready-to-wear, and most of these designs are shoes that I’d wear without alteration. The Palais sandal with the heavily beaded overlay probably needs a bit of editing, but somehow, I’m actually liking the Tribute take on the casual jelly sandal. I don’t know that I’d ever actually wear it, but it strikes me as an incredibly fun take on something familiar. The rest of the shoes? I’d like them all in size 39, please.
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Even if you’re done with the Yves Saint Laurent Tributes, as a shoe lover, it’s impossible to gloss over the place that they’ve had in footwear culture over the past few years. I remember when they first came out and the media was abuzz with over what was at the time an absolutely ridiculous platform and heel height, and since their inception (and because of their wild popularity), our feet endured almost five years of five-inch heels and heavy platforms.

Now that fashion is starting to swing back toward a more reasonable heel and no platform, YSL is tasked with figuring out to do with one of its most signature products. The result is the Yves Saint Laurent Tribute Lace-Up Ankle Booties, which keep the signature angular platform and instead try to fullfil the trend toward menswear-inspired shoes.

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The fashion industry can be so cruel sometimes. Particularly when season change. As I’ve lamented before, just as everyone is settling comfortably into summer, fall collections start popping up for pre-order and suddenly none of my summer purchases look all that appealing. Not when faced with what I could have, if I could just wait a few months. Take the Yves Saint Laurent Palais Passementerie Booties, for example.

These shoes build on the very successful Palais shape that YSL debuted last season, and although the skewed, curvy shape of the platform and heel aren’t for everyone, to me they’re a fantastic riff on a structure that we all take for granted. When rendered in grey suede with a couple very rich details, I’m even more enthusiastic.

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My first thought upon seeing the Yves Saint Laurent Baobab Python Wedges? “I sure hope that platform is hollow.” If it is, this is a very cool pair of summer wedges (or almost-wedges – there’s a very small divide between the platform and the heel.) If it’s not, they’re likely a bloody foot waiting to happen – a couple of uber-thin straps isn’t enough to comfortably attach a solid wedge of that size to anyone’s foot, even if you’re something of a professional heel-wearer.

I’m going to embrace optimism and assume that the fine folks at Yves Saint Laurent love us enough to give us a hollow or otherwise lightweight wedge, though, and go forward with my generally positive feelings about this shoe. The flash of orange in the python pattern is a nice touch, as is the amount of snakeskin that the large wedge provides.

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If you had asked me to name the two most important trends of 2011 without any shoes or accessories sitting in front of me my answer would have been instantaneous and easy – brights and python, of course! It looks as though someone in the YSL accessories department is exactly on my wavelength, because the Yves saint Laurent Python Tribute Sandals hit both of those trends simultaneously.

I don’t love that I’m writing about another pair of Tributes from Yves Saint Laurent instead of something completely new and exciting, but this is the best version of the shoe that I’ve seen in a while. I’m not convinced that they’re all that relevant in 2011, but the design still appeals to me on a certain level, particularly in a bright exotic.

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It usually takes a brand with strong historical roots to do a convincing vintage reference, and that’s something that Yves Saint Laurent has in spades, even if the company’s 1962 advent doesn’t quite date back to the era of the Yves Saint Laurent Palais Slingbacks. These shoes are a tad more 1940s in their silhouette, and I could easily see them on the feet of a screen siren in a beautiful, handmade gown.

Because of the neutral color scheme and the penchant for retro lines in modern fashion, these shoes would be simple to incorporate into an outfit even if the rest of the pieces didn’t include any references. Even peeking out from under a pair of trousers, the white and black contrast would make a strong stylistic statement that would still be wearable in many locations, so long as you can contend with the heel.

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If you believe the rumors, Stefano Pilati’s days at Yves Saint Laurent are numbered. Of course, rumor’s about Pilati’s imminent ouster from the legendary French label have been swirling for seasons, so until something more concrete happens, I won’t be holding my breath. But looking at the shoes from Yves Saint Laurent Fall 2011, it might be time for some new creative blood to be infused into the brand. These shoes are quite a bit better than spring’s, particularly the immaculate knee-high laced boots, but they’re still not the type of lust-worthy heels that have carried YSL to the top of the footwear food chain.

As with most of the collections I’ve covered from Paris Fashion Week, it’s not that there’s something inherently wrong with these shoes. Several of them are totally covetable (stacked wedge oxfords, yes please), several are insane enough to be eye-catching at the very least (hello, gumdrop wedges), and the majority of the collection is somewhere in between. But the mushy middle is never the ideal place to be when clients and editors are expecting a grand statement, and as is often the problem with Pilati’s clothes, these shoes just don’t go quite far enough.

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