Kim Kardashian Proenza Schouler Platform Sandals

Kim Kardashian is loving her Proenza Schouler Platform Sandals,  in less than 2 weeks she’s been spotted more than once sporting these woven leather sandals. For some reasons despite the 5.5″ sculpted, stacked heel, these patform look easy to wear! We’re certain that football hottie, Miles Austin is approving and loving Kim’s look! These babies used to retail for $1035, now you can get them at 50% off Now for $517 via Shopbop.com

Proenza Schouler Platform High Heel Sandals

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Lutz Spring Summer 2010 Accessories

For its Spring Summer 2010, LUTZ designed a line of accessories that is inspired by his ready-to-wear collection named « Storm »: a series of handbags and shoes that are inspired by the movement of garments in the air, darted, wind swept, torn.

The collection of bags includes two hand bags in full-grain leather that are worn on the shoulder and two clutch bags in fine lambskin. They present multiple pleats and loose and audacious curves that refer to the natural movements of the body and fill out the silhouette.

After 2 successful shoe collections “LUTZ by Robert Clergerie”, Lutz and shoemaker Robert Clergerie continue to collaborate for Spring Summer 2010.

This limited edition shoe collection includes three pairs of leather sandales, going from flat over semi high to a high heeled pair. They are developed with the same idea: a fine or large strap that envelopes the foot and the ankle in one mouvement.

The LUTZ accessories are available worldwide in multibrand boutiques that distribute LUTZ and online on YOOX.COM

J.M. Weston Humeurs Exhibit or how to combine tradition and modernity

Humeurs Exhibition – Wednesday, May 13th 6pm – The Flag Art Foundation

I use to walk by the Avenue Victor Hugo J.M Weston store in Paris to go to school. Even at a early age the shoe maker was through my eyes the ultimate luxury shoe maker.

J.M Weston is for the shoes what the Rolls is for the cars, what the Hermes Birkin is for the bags.

I can imagine the excitement that Frank Gehry, Martin Szekely, Kris Van Assche, Clemence Krzentowsky, and Michel Perry have had when they’ve been asked to create the shoes of their dream.

It reminds me of the Louis Vuitton logo 100th anniversary celebration. Seven designers have been asked by Louis Vuitton to create new objects with the monogram canvas. Azzedine Alaïa, Manolo Blahnik, Helmut Lang, Isaac Mizrahi, Romeo Gigli, Vivienne Westwood, and Sybilla all created limited edition pieces.

What more desirable than having a carte blanche to design a pair of shoes with no limitation of skin choices, shape, decorations.

Frank Gehry the man who defined architecture in the 20th century, Martin Szekely multi-facette artist, Kris Van Assche Dior Homme designer, Clemence Krzentowsky and Michel Perry known for his pleated leather shoes, had the honor to unveil what their dream shoes would be and let the J.M. Weston artisans transformed the dream to reality.

In addition J.M Weston asked five photographers to stage these special orders. The result is the marriage of Claudine Doury, Harry Gruyaert, Karen Knorr, Martin Parr and Lise Sarfati photographers’s univers with the five designers.

A question came to my mind when I left the exhibition.

How to combine tradition, Art and modernity?

The J.M Weston Humeurs Exhibition is the answer.

We bumped onto Tyson Beckford and his lovely fiance Shanina Shaik that we met in frebruary at the Victoria Secret What is Sexy Party. Tyson confessed to us his weakness when it comes to J.M. Weston shoes.

All seven styles in the collection are on display in the J.M. Weston store in New York and available for special order through the end of the year, for $2,300 to $3,400.

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Phillip Lim Launches New Products

Lim and Zhou are launching new products such as shoes, lingerie and swim. In Parallel they will open in August a flagship store in Seoul and are in negotiations to launch others in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai in the next few years.

The swim line and lingerie will range between $65 to $175, with feminin girly inspiration . Looks include slips with abstract pansy appliqués, mesh-trim bralettes and boyshorts with beaded embellishments. The lingerie line is named 3.1 Phillip Lim Initials” because it’s the initial thing you put on, before you put on clothes.” said Lim.

The shoe line will be launched this fall. Lim already collaborated with Birkenstock and Nicholas Kirkwood in the past and has no plans to abandon his relationship with Christian Louboutin. The shoe collection, priced from $290 to $675, is geared towards more practical environs, not the fashion circuit,  Louboutin designs will continue to accessorize his runway. “Everyone’s making crazy shoes,” says Lim, “so we were like, ‘Let’s do working shoes, but sophisticated and beautiful.’”

Pictures via Philip Lim

Sample Sale Bonanza Day 3 – Marc Jacobs

So after downloading our new favourite iPhone App “5800+ Cocktail Recipes”, and a night of experimenting exotic takes on Vodka, we woke up kinda late for Marc Jacobs the next day. In fact, rumor had it folks were standing outside the 146 Mercer store from as early as 7am, with the queue bending around the Mercer hotel by 8:30am. With the doors opening at 10am, famished fashionistas feasted on grogeous MJ bags. And with prices hovering only from $50-$300 for high end leather bags, even the street counterfeit sellers had to go into the store and snag what they could.

As our Twitter feed shows, we got there by 5pm and queued up as far as back of the Mercer hotel. We made good conversation with the ladies on line, who were all but nervous that there wouldn’t be anything left by the time they got in. From a peek through the store window, we spotted piles of bags along the middle aisle when we walked by and knew there would be more than enough to go around. After a 1 hour wait, our toes were colder than Stylistas TV ratings, but that happily changed upon walking through the boutique’s brick lined doors.

But what greeted us inside was everything save magical – in fact, it was like a retake on the Le SportSac madness, except the girls were a lot taller and they came prepared for a fight. With cluttered boxes of mismatched shoes everywhere, bags piled on top of bags spilling out onto the floor, the MJ boutique looked like another poorly planned FEMA project. The staff valiantly tried to meet the enormous queue of buyers, swiping credit cards in a flurry, just to get as many buyers out as more came in.

We took a deep breathe, turned our rings around, took off our earrings, hiked up our skirts and dove into the pandemonium elbow first. Immediately, we knew we were leaving MJ with at least two things: bags and shoes. To that, we immediately snagged a couple lovely Silver ruby-eyed frog pochette purses in every colour under the Fall rainbow: navy blue, black, and ivory.

Mountain of discounted MJ bags

Mismatched MJ shoe boxes

Next we snatched up the same pochette but in clutch format, sans strap and in black. Whilst looking for shoes, we were torn between a black laced ballerina and a smooth lavender satin bow flat. The latter won, since it seemed to go best with our Alexander Wang cashmere knit.

With these savings, we even felt compelled to get something for the special guys in our life. A last pair of 90% discounted brown suede sneakers in 9.5′s meant we couldn’t pass them up.

The damage: $100 pochette (x3 @$300), $50 clutch, $60 flats, $26 men’s sneakers.

Grand total: $476, tax included!

After quickly checking our receipts to make sure there wasn’t some catch to this sale, we still buzzed from the shockingly awesome deals we were able to come away with. Every other store we visited afterwards was just the after-shopping orgasm to our MJ climax. We especially took pleasure in having sales reps in other stores ask us if we went to the MJ sample sale. To that, I simply swiveled around to show my huge white Marc Jacobs shopping bag and smiled.

Alexander Wang Steps Up His A-ccessories Game with Shoes and a Diffusion Line

Alexander Wang ups the ante with new launches and a fresh vision for spring. Swing by Alexander Wang’s new downtown studio and you might focus on any number of things. Perhaps it’s the custom-made black goat hair sofa chair. Or the receptionist’s desk with giant shipyard chain-link legs. The Thirties brass theater lights. Maybe it’s even the colossal space itself; this TriBeCa office is nearly four times the size of his previous 2,000-square-foot Flatiron studio — not bad for a designer who, just four years ago, was pitching his debut collection from his apartment. The most telling of pieces here, however, Wang has hidden away on his office wall. It’s a large Juergen Teller photograph of a playful Kate Moss — with tousled pink hair — peeking out from under all-white bed covers. Wang, as anyone familiar with the designer knows, has been hooked on Moss-as-muse since his launch lineup of intarsia cashmere sweaters in fall 2005. And perhaps even more famously, he’s introduced to industry vernacular the term M.O.D. or model-off-duty. “It’s that sense of ease and being confident,” he explains, “like you just rolled out of bed and threw something on.” In other words, nothing too perfect or matchy-matchy.

 

And that formula — mining often unpretty elements that somehow end up looking nonchalantly stylish and chic — has created quite a successful niche for this 24-year-old San Francisco native. On the accolade front, just this year, Wang has garnered an Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation award, a CFDA Swarovski Award nomination for Womenswear and, most recently, nabbed a top 10 finalist spot for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Business-wise, meanwhile, things are snowballing — and those new, improved digs are just one indication. Take, for instance, the company figures. Spring sales jumped 40 percent from 2007 to 2008 and fall sales, 60 percent. So far, wholesale numbers this year have totaled $8 million, with 2009 projections running in the $10 million to $15 million range. This month, moreover, Wang gets his first shop-in-shop at Barneys New York flagships nationwide. “When we saw his fall collection, we were blown away,” says Terence Bogan, vice president of women’s Co-op at Barneys New York. “Our budget [for his collection] doubled from the previous season. We needed to resonate that with the customer so we expanded his space.” And, indeed, his February fashion show was a high-octane extravaganza, in which the designer let rip his vision of a grungy street-chic girl — torn denim, oversize blazers, shredded hosiery and beanies. “[Fall] was the season where people really recognized us,” says Wang. “We’re under a microscope now. We have to watch our moves and make sure everything we do is right.” That means keeping the momentum rolling for spring 2009.

In an exclusive preview with WWD, Wang revealed two new product launches for the season. He will present his first shoe collection, and he’s dipping into the diffusion arena with a lower-priced label. But the latter isn’t just a cheaper version of his main line; this new collection is all about cotton basics. “I’m not taking away from what I’m selling, and confusing the customer. I realized there were no T-shirts that spoke to my aesthetic,” he says. “You have those L.A. brands and then you have the $200, $300 shirts from The Row and Rick Owens.” T by Alexander Wang will feature 12 styles — from tanks ($28 wholesale) to T-shirt dresses ($40) — all cut in the designer’s signature languid style, with colors ranging from simple whites and heather grays to lavender, chartreuse and cerulean. “Necklines are stretched and armholes are strategically lowered so that it looks worn in,” he explains. “It’s like sleeping in a T-shirt and then wearing it the next day. It’s not this crisp little T out of the dryer. It’s draped and kind of wilted.” Wang’s footwear, on the other hand, is aggressively sexy. There are five styles, each a variation on the platform sandal. “Everyone’s been doing an open-toe,” says Wang. “I added the thong to give a fresh perspective and make it more provocative. The thong between your toes, it draws your attention to that area.” Priced at $125 to $250 wholesale, the collection ranges from a perforated leather bootie to a heel topped with fringe. Wang even tossed in a few tough-chic fetish references, courtesy of actual body-piercing rings he’s used as hardware. The inspiration here? The shoes were designed as a contrast to his upcoming spring lineup, which he promises will be a marked departure from past collections. Instead of a grungy attitude and a focus on separates, there will be lots of color and dresses, underscored by an athletic-meets-“Miami Vice” vibe influenced by two recent trips to the sunny city. Another sign of change for the designer: a new stylist.

 

He’s hired Alastair McKimm to fill in friend Erin Wasson’s shoes. Of course, you can bet there will be plenty of Wang’s offbeat counterpoints throughout. His spring lace patterns, for instance, are inspired by sweat stains, and the runway hats by milliner Albertus Swanepoel will be, as Wang describes them, half swim caps, half “corseted do-rags.” With all these new categories in the works, though, one wonders if it’s all too much too soon, especially considering the downbeat economy. “It’s a very risky move at a time like this,” admits the designer. “But we do take that into account. You have to deliver on the product, and I think I’ve proven that on the sales side.” Wang adds that he’s not recklessly pushing ahead. He plans to conservatively launch the new shoe line, for example, in his top five stores before diving into full distribution for fall 2009. “It’s just an evolution now,” he remarks. “People are either going to love [the changes] or hate [them], but they’ll recognize you for it. You have to show that the brand can evolve and that there’s a future for it.”

Courtesy: WWD

Diane Von Furstenberg Loves her Louboutin

“I have more of his shoes than in the exhibition.” So joked Diane von Furstenberg in introducing her close friend Christian Louboutin at a talk he gave last Wednesday evening at FIT, which is currently holding an exhibit of his footwear. She wasn’t the only Louboutin enthusiast in the crowd. In a charming anecdotal manner, the designer ran through his 16-year career, starting at the beginning with his years as a teen interning at the Folies Bergère in Paris. (Fun fact: the ladies would stuff veal carpaccio into their soles for padded comfort.) When he began talking about his 1994 “Trash” shoes, which were covered in a collage of dreck like train stubs and gum wrappers, a brunette called out that she was wearing a pair and proceeded to pass one around.