Oh, Viola! How I wish I had an excuse to wear you, right now! You look so beautiful, with your multicoloured swirl, and your slender stiletto, and I’d just love to take you dancing! Aaaaand, I’m speaking to a shoe now, so not being able to wear these is probably the very LEAST of my worries, isn’t it?
These shoes looked rather out of place on the Saks website, amongst all of the huge platforms and other modern shapes: they seem to have come from some bygone age, and that’s a huge part of their appeal for me. I also love the fact that the blue pair reminds me of the ocean, with those green and blue “waves” rising out of the toe! I would probably have liked them even more if they’d been slingbacks rather than ankle straps, but I’d be happy to wear them just the way they are, too.
These are by Fendi, and are £482: click here to buy them.
These are the second (and third) pair of shoes I’ve featured this month to use the rather usual combination of raffia and suede, and I have to say, it’s starting to grow on me. I tend to think of suede as a rather “wintry” fabric, while raffia is most definitely a summer one (try wearing raffia shoes in Scotland in the winter and you’ll soon realise the error of your ways), buy there’s nothing wintry about these Cinti pumps – or, indeed the Fendi version which seems to have provided at least some of the inspiration for them.
The Fendis are from last summer, and I really loved the flat, off-centre bow. Unfortunately, at £510 they were destined never to be mine, either in this upper, or in one of the other colours they were available in. The Cinti shoes, however, are another matter: at a much more affordable £78, these have a more conventionally shaped bow, but share a similar, light and breezy look, with their taupe suede and neutral raffia.
If you like these, you better be quick – they’re sold out in all but two sizes at Spartoo, so they’re probably not going to be around for much longer.
We were talking about flatforms yesterday, so here’s the King of the Flatform for you to cast judgement upon: Fendi’s leather and satin sandals.
These aren’t completely flat, as you can see, so I’m not totally convinced they’re deserving of the title “flatform”, but they do cut a very… interesting… silhouette. A bit like a large brick in fact. No, that’s not a good thing.
That said, they’re definitely different, and I keep returning to the Colette website just to look at them, although I may well be thinking “Who would wear these?” when I do.
Great shoes, Boutique 9, but… haven’t we seen this shape somewhere before?
We certainly have: on the left of the picture we have Fendi’s ‘Butterfly’ peep toes, which I showed you last summer, while on the right we have Boutique 9′s ‘Caruhah’, looking sort of similar. You could obviously play Spot the Difference here with the colours, the materials and the height of the platform, but even so, they’re still essentially the same shape.
The Boutique 9 shoes are $170, and come in a few different colourways, of which I’ve shown you the most unusual. (You can click here to see the rest of them.) The Fendis, meanwhile, were $790, but are now sold out.
One of my favourite stores in Florida is a Saks Off Fifth outlet, which occasionally has some absolutely amazing shoes at pretty good prices (or comparatively good prices, rather). This year when I visited, they had these exact shoes, only in a peach, satin upper. I can’t tell you how many times I went back to visit those shoes. (OK, I can: it was three times. I think. Although, in my defence, I didn’t go back just to look at the shoes.) I loved them. They were much prettier in real life than they look in the picture and I promised myself that if I had enough money left by the end of the trip, I’d go back and buy them. Of course, I didn’t get them, but I can’t help thinking that if they’d had this bright pink suede version there on sale, I might now have been able to be so restrained.
Sadly, these are definitely not on sale: in fact, they’re $725, but if you wish, you can click here to buy them.
These shoes remind me of horses hooves. I’m not saying I don’t like them, you understand, just that… well, they look like they belong on something with a mane and tail, and I think they’d require some careful styling for me to be able to get that image out of my head.
I’m fairly sure I’m going to be the only one making equine associations with these $895 designer shoes, though, so tell me, what do you think of them?
The green colour was the thing that drew my attention to Fendi’s Gothic Romans platforms, but once my attention had been duly grabbed, there was plenty there to hold it, because as well as the fabulous colour, these shoes also have an unusual, sculpted platform sole which uses two different types of wood. The leather uppers also have a snake print for added texture, plus cutout details, just in case all of that wasn’t quite enough for you.
I think these are shoes that look better on than they do in the photo: if you don’t believe me, just click here to see them on the Net-a-Porter model, or to order them for £875.
At first glance, I could’ve sworn these shoes were Miu Miu: the shape of the upper is very reminiscent of some of the shoes in their current collection, but these are, in fact by Fendi, and the slightly more streamlined shape is the giveaway.
With a 6″ heel and 2″ platform, these should feel like you’re walking on four inches, but they will add a significant amount of height, which is worth bearing in mind if you feel you’re tall enough already (or if you have vertigo). The brown suede gives them an autumnal feel, and the mix of leather and suede creates a nice contrast.
These are $790 and you can buy them at Neiman Marcus.
