much better/follow up

ok, with all the discussion around wedge sneakers, and my dislike of them, a week or so ago, i found myself revisiting my love for pierre hardy sneakers, which i consider the best alternative to the isabel marant wedgies.

and so i bought some.

and i'm feeling much better:

see how my feet & body all look nice and normally proportioned!? 

i feel much more like i have feet, and less like i have hooves.

fancy french sneakers.

no icky, weird feelings. hooray!

i tried, i tried.

as a lot of you already know, i am not a fan of wedge sneakers.

really, not at all.

but i found myself at barney's the other day, with a few minutes to spare before a meeting.

so, i thought, in the name of research, i'd see what all the fuss is about:

the review?

much, much, much more comfy and less weird feeling than i'd expected.

i still hate the proportions and how they look on the foot.

so there you go. i still hate them, but i hate them in a more informed way.

marant forever

yesterday, i stopped by the isabel marant store in soho.

there were about 15 things that i would have liked to pick up for myself, but i was pretty happy with just grabbing these two postcards.

i generally get a bit tired of a model when she's been as over exposed as freja beha erichsen has in the past few years. but she really seems very right for marant.

cool girl....

cool clothes.

nyfw #13

love the dress. i want.

oh! she's wearing the isabel marant sneakers that i blogged about! make the two people that i've seen wearing them....

black on black is probably one of the best ways to wear them, actually.

also, she's wearing the celine glasses from kelly's post!

i can't get down with this

i think a lot of you know that i'm a shoe designer, as my "day job".

i'll just mention it again now, as an excuse for why i have such strong feelings about footwear.

and here's my latest vent- sneakers with hidden wedges...

isabel marant has been doing these for a number of seasons, and they must be selling like hotcakes for her to still be doing new versions of them:

(however, i've only seen them on the street once.)

the fashion crowd seems to love the "leg lengthening" aspects of these shoes, which may or may not be real. however, i just can't stand the proportions of them. it's a bit hard to describe, but i having that wedge in there just changes the way that it seems like your foot is shaped inside.

it makes the foot look shorter (in length) and smaller than the actual size of the wearer's foot, and really exaggerates the top of the arch. it sort of almost reminds me of foot binding.

you can kind of see it in this photo:

obviously i'm in the minority of not liking these. as i've said, they've been embraced by fashion editors and bloggers the world over.

and now, marc jacobs has gotten into the act. he showed a few colors of these shoes for spring 12:

the proportions here are even worse. i hate the slight bump at the toe that remind me of the stride rite sneakers that i wore as a kid. these shoes really look like a brick at the bottom of the leg.

i really think it's a shame, because i love sneakers. and i love high-end sneakers even more. but i just can't get down with this trend.

what do y'all think? do you like them? it's ok if you think i'm crazy.....

wanna know which sneakers i'd buy if i were planning on dropping a few hundred dollars? (and which ones i recommend to you, dear reader, as an alternative to the cement shoes above?)

pierre hardy.

toujours: