shoe york city

Kill your Darlings

I'm sad to do it, and I sometimes imagine my shoe collection making it into a museum someday, but I'm selling these deep pink wedge Marc Jacobs shoes on ebay.  If you want them, they are here. 

Pointe shoes

A whole other kind of shoe.  From Capezio.

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Wingtip crocodile suede grosgrain ribbon pointy flats, from Spring 2006 ready-to-wear.  Bought at Marc by Marc on Bleeker Street, at some point last year, for 70% off. 

Post from Paris

Another from Colette - the window model.  Brown, pink, mod, chained, baubled, and angular - with bootlets.  Maker unknown, as of yet!

Join our Mailing List!

To join shoeyorkcity's monthly mailing list, send your information to shoeyorkcity@gmail.com.   

Roger Vivier, Part I

I shot these covert at Colette - Vivier Fall 2007 Patent Corsage Pumps.  Interiors embossed in gold.

Louboutin Grass Wedges

I never fell for the anklebreaking wedges of the last season and a half, but everyone else did, so I feel compelled to post.  As beautiful as they can look off the foot (a sculpted sand dune with a bunch of colored kites at the top), they often overpower the leg that stands on them.  Still, a good amount of beauty.  Farewell at the end of this summer, I hope.

Colette, Fall 2007

These photos were taken (covert) at Colette, a most beautiful store on the Rue St. Honore in the First Arrondissement.  Fall 2007 is looking slate and ashen gray, big costume rhinestones, high peeptoe pumps, and patent.  Also - I saw the bootlets.  And they looked good. 

Non-shoe of the week: Velib

Here's me, on the new Velib bicycles in Paris!

Feet on the Street - Paris

Cobalt summer sandals, as worn n Blvd. St. Germain by a young woman who told me that she bought them on the Rue du Four. 

French Cooking School

This shot taken in Colmar, France at Isabel Sipp's cooking school, Cardamom, where I ate foie gras and black beet risotto and salted caramel ice cream - not together. 

Marc by Marc Jacobs workday heels, in sea green gros grain with leather tip and piping, and pink plastic bows. 

Non-shoe of the week

This is a vintage print from Zachary's Smile, as worn this weekend by my roommate Kristin.

Feet on the Street

Black strappy greco-roman sandals, on Avenue C, at 7th Street. 

Cigarette shoe

This shoe, my friends, is a one of a kind.  It doesn't even have a right foot match.  Inspired by the vibrant, yarn, wax paper, and found material mixed media work of Vadis Turner, I made it out of cigarettes, matches, and a thin metal fire extinguisher sign.  Here's where everything comes from:
Cigarettes, Natural American Spirits, from a Duane Reade in the east village.
Matches - A gift from my India-loving friend Lindsay.
White foam insole - Free with a pair of M by MJ flats that I bought half a size to big, on Bleeker Street.
Tan canvas - Cut from a bag made by Loop, with Andy Warhol screenprinted to the front.
Fire extinguisher sign - From Blaustein's hardware, on Bleeker Street.
Coathanger - You can hardly see it, but it's between the insole and the canvas.  I cut it from a coathanger, from a drycleaner on 7th Avenue.  I had to buy a semi-serious wirecutter to do it, and that too is from Blaustein's.

Retrouver

After a year and a half of not writing, and inspired by the Sartorialist, this page's ecrivain is back.  So many shoes went unphotographed last year!  So many of them now ugly-heeled, sole-scuffed, and muted from the wear of my two little pied machines.  Lots of catching up to do, but I won't start from the archives.  These silver Miu Miu python lob-nosed flats, shinier than dimes, call Sam & Libby's second reincarnation to mind at the tip, but nowhere else.  A pretty little dark grey card with tiny writing inside the shoebox alerts me:  Shoes with meticulous finish details, made of fine reptile skin that has been tanned using traditional methods and processed to obtain a pearlescent effect.  The origin of the skin is guaranteed and its export is governed by the provisions of the Washington Convention on Endangered Species.   Bought at Scoop Beach, at the July sale, for 70% off.  Vive la pearlescence!

Cary Grant on Expensive Shoes

"I'm reminded of a piece of advice my father gave me regarding shoes: it has stood me in good stead whenever my own finances were low. He said, it's better to buy one good pair of shoes than four cheap ones. One pair made of fine leather could outlast four inferior pairs and, if well cared for, would continue to proclaim your good judgement and taste no matter how old they become. It is rather like the stock market. It makes more sense to buy just one share of blue chip than 150 shares of a one-dollar stock."

- from Cary Grant's Biography, by Marc Eliot

Nike Air Max 1

They're back!

Hollywould at TJ Maxx

Would Holly be mad that her Spring 2005 line has ended up on the three-tiered linoleum display at TJ Maxx?  I don't know much about the retail footwear market, but I wonder if a designer has to give the go ahead for her distributors to send their retail merch to the discount retail merch places.  I shot an email to Leslie at Leary PR in Boston - Leary handles PR for TJ Maxx - but no word yet.  I'll keep you posted.  Until then run out to the TJ on 6th Avenue and 18th Street and grab a pair of these cream-salmon all-piping open woven sandalflats!

Spoon Fed

Though I know it's out of my domain, I thought I'd list one thing I did find at the Intermix Sample Sale:  a graphic ribbed tank from Spoon Fed.

Ugly Shoes - As Promised

Here are  a few of the ugly shoes  from the Intermix Sample Sale.

Online Shoe Sales

Asics Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 Canvas in Light Orange/Blue/Green - $39.98 at Classic Sports Shoes.  (Women's 6 and 8.5 only).  The Mexico 66 was the first shoe with tiger stripes. They were worn at the Mexico City Olympic Games in 1968.  It's amazing to see in a google image search how many colors this shoe comes in.  I found it in Beige/Navy at a Foot Locker clearance sale in February.

Sigerson Morrison

I burned $60 on green rubber - two seasons too late!  Back in November, I waited around a block on Broome Street  for this Sigerson Morrison rain flat - SM was holding their first annual sample sale.  After three hours with eavesdropping on little clusters of ad sales girls and reading the film exec in front of me's blackberry over her shoulder as my only form of livelihood, they didn't have the little galoshettes in my size!  So when I eyed them in kelly at the Barney's Sample Sale, I jumped. 

And P.S. I was right about Intermix:  the shoes there were UGLY.  I'll post some covert operation photos that I took from under my jacket later. 

Intermix Warehouse Sale

Last year I thought very hard about buying a pair of KORS navy/red brushed suede tie-up loafer-boots with white deck soles (a la Sebago Docksiders) and 2-inch pony heels at the Intermix Warehouse Sale .  For this reason I don't recommend the sale for shoes.  (They're advertising the markdown of the KORS Weston boot - which is even uglier) - but I have found amazing clothing buys here in the past. Paul & Joe slimline pique khakis, Claude Pierlot cotton tie-die tank, a pair of wursted wool Theory dress pants with ankle slits that I sold for a 300% markup on ebay, etc.  The sale runs Friday and Saturday, but last year the final day was cancelled due to  inventory problems:  they had run out of everything.   

Vans

Orange/blue checkered Vans classic slip-on skateboard deck shoes with waffle sole, purchased at Magic Shoes on Bleecker Street in New York.   Sean Penn wears a pair of these (in black/white) as Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).

 

 

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Coral pink calfskin slingback with mario mushroom 1.5 inch heel, purchased at Bloomingdale's in Atlanta, Georgia off the clearance rack.  From Spring 2004 ready-to-wear collection.  To visit Marc by Marc's Spring 2006 ready-to-wear collection, click here .