Giuseppe Zanotti Christmas Shoe Design

Designer Giuseppe Zanotti is releasing a limited edition shoe design for Christmas. The design is absolutely glamorous as the 1.5-inch chrome platform with the 5.5-inch heel accompanies the black suede ankle straps luxuriously decorated with Swarovski black diamond micro-crystals. Starting on December 1st, these beauties will be available at Zanotti boutiques priced at around $1,300.

Spring 2009: The Most Dangerous Shoes

The runways are a scary place especially when it comes to the dangerously high heels, which seem to be more torturous than fashionably beautiful. The shoes can be either way too high or way too uncomfortable and combined with the runway experiments like a sandy runway or the plain extremely slippery ones, we get a horrifying combination of the hazardous runway shows.

This year, many models tripped during the shows of Rodarte, Pucci and who can forget Prada. And many more models stumbled at Dolce & Gabbana and BCBG and many others were petrified during Basso & Brooke, Marni, Gucci, Aminaka Wilmont and Christian Dior but miraculously survived. In any case, I think designers should start paying attention to this much more. It is one thing to bring fantasy and temptatious footwear to the runway, it is another to have models visibly scared, trembling or falling on the runway, there by distracting the audience from the clothes since the audience is merely too worried about the poor girls on the runway.

Below are some of the most horrifying, including the toe-less/sole-less shoes by Aminaka Wilmont, as well as Prada, Rodarte, Marni and Basso & Brooke in that order from left to right!

Manolo Blahnik’s New Obsession: Flats

Well, we already know he makes great heels. And we know that platforms are the ugliest shoes he has ever seen in his life. So, about flats? Apparently, Carrie Bradshaw’s favorite designer loves flats. “It’s much more difficult to be beautiful and walk femininely in flats. Bardot in France did it and Audrey Hepburn in America. They looked fantastic and walked like tigers, beautiful and graceful, but you can walk like a beach bum in them - then they don’t look so good.” The secret to impressing the great show designer with your shoes is not their style and pricetag but rather your attitude. “I love any kind of shoe as long as the right person is wearing them,” says the talented Manolo. Except platforms of course.

Victoria Beckham Shocks NY with Heel-Less Boots!

At the Beckhams’ perfume launch this weekend in New York, Victoria shocked all by wearing these PVC thigh-high heel-less boots by Antonio Berardi. A pair of these runs at about $5,600 and are made to order. The English-Italian designer started the heel-less shoe trend in the summer with the heel-less sandals which were actually bought by Uma Thurman, Gwyneth Paltrow and of course Posh Spice. These new made to order boots have already sold around 60 pairs worldwide.

Is this design impossible to wear? After all, heels alone make you feel enormous pain after long hours, then what will no heels do for your high-”heeled” shoes? Well, according to Berardi these shoes do not cause any pain.

“They are perfectly balanced. When the girls come for fittings, they look a bit daunted, but by the end they say it’s just like wearing a regular shoe. They are graceful and there is a ballerina nature about them. Having a heel is really just psychological.” The trick to the heel-less shoes is that they have a bigger platform sole which stretched back further than the ordinary heel shoes and this is what gives the needed support not to fall. However, when you walk you would need to step on your toes first. Medical experts of course disagree warning that if regularly worn, the shoes could cause permanent physical damage. I can see their appeal as they remind of the pointe ballerina shoes. But any ballerina would tell you that she would never wear her shoes unless she had to, no matter how appealing they are.

Would you wear the heel-less shoes? Is this the next dangerous footwear trend that everyone will start obssesing about?

Milan Spring 2009: Gucci

“It was an exotic tour in Acapulco, the Americas, Miami,” explains Gucci’s designer Frida Giannini about her collection. “It was interesting to bring back the idea of the tailoring from menswear and mix it with a shorter, softer silhouette. The common idea of the entire collection is the prints and the color, which are so strong. It is all in the same attitude.” Indeed, the spring collection brought many prints like the Hawaiian-print capris, safari and exotic bird prints. Gold hardware and bright large bags were the accessories alongside bondage platforms. Beautiful long chiffon gowns closed the show in stunning colors such as royal blue, lavender and prints. Bright, fresh and modern, this collection will surely be a sell-out.

Gucci Milan Spring 2009

Manolo Blahnik Hates Platforms

The ever-charming Manolo Blahnik, who I absolutely love, makes some of the most amazing, exquisite and surprisingly comfortable shoes ever. He creates beautiful styles but the designer shares with Times Magazine that he is not one to follow shoe trends.

“I don’t do shoes for fashion, really. I do what I want to do.”

He does not follow fashion, but he absolutely-definitely does not do platforms. In fact, the designer is appalled by their poularity in recent years.

“I’ve never seen such ugly shoes in my life. I thought they were démodé in the 1980s. They are getting absolutely funkier and horrid now”