sample sale season - part 2

subtitle: the sample sale as social protest?

as you may remember, i have been mourning the loss of kari sigerson & miranda morrison as members of the very small list of american footwear designers that i truly respect and admire. they were such an inspiration to me, and (i know i'm repeating myself, here) really big reason that i decided to become a shoe designer myself.

so, when i read that kari and miranda were going to do a sale of shoes from their "laboratory boutique" without the authorization of the company that still owns their names.... i couldn't help but get excited. it seemed like a great way to collect what they did own, and do a last hurrah sale. it's a big fuck you thumb in the eye to the mark fisher company! great! i love it....

as it turned out, the mark people didn't think it was so great, and did indeed whine and cry make a stink. they put out a press release making sure that everyone knew that the product that was being sold could not be verified, and that the sale was not associated with the brand whatsoever.

babies.

unfortunately, the afternoon of the sale, it was pouring with rain in nyc, and the wait to get into the lovely space was terribly long. there were all sorts of discussion and rumors traveling up and down the line as to what had actually happened to the leadership of the brand, and what it might mean that a brand called sigerson morrison will not have designers with those actual names....

there even seemed to be a mark fisher company sympathizer, who loudly proclaimed that "these two designers were absolutely terrible to work with" and seemed to think that kari & miranda got what they deserved in the deal. i wonder why she thought that they were worth waiting in the rain for over an hour? when she finally got up to the front of the line, she proclaimed at the top of her voice that "she doesn't wait in line for over an hour for any brand". quite a funny announcement, after spending the last hour or so proving that statement not to be true.

most of the lovely ladies in line, however, seemed to be squarely in the corner of the designers, and were fairly content to wait for deals on what they thought might be some of the last shoes that could truly be called sigerson morrison.

at the end of my (admittedly long and soggy) wait, i entered the sale, and had a lovely time trying on knee-high gladiator flat sandals, gorgeous genuine snakeskin lace up high heeled booties and a lovely pair of red suede flat chelsea boots. none that fit my size, also fit my budget, unfortunately..... the snakeskin boots were a totally good deal at $299, but alas, out of my range...

the consolation prize? a short but friendly conversation with kari sigerson, who was quite positive about the split, and even more optimistic about the future of the design duo. it turns out that they will definitely be back.

watch this space for more info......