“The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today” – Alexander McQueen.

A shoe and at the same time an architectonic piece, so kitsch to become sublime, made possible by combining Alexander McQueen brilliant mind, and the experience of Italian master shoemakers. The Armadillo are without any doubts the most innovative shoes presented recently.

They have been revealed during McQueen‘s  SS 10 show, “The Plato’s Atlantis Collection”, as a part of the looks of mutant creatures who embodied the mood of the collection. An ... Read More »]]>

What is there behind the most controversial shoes of the last years?

“The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today” – Alexander McQueen.

A shoe and at the same time an architectonic piece, so kitsch to become sublime, made possible by combining Alexander McQueen brilliant mind, and the experience of Italian master shoemakers. The Armadillo are without any doubts the most innovative shoes presented recently.

They have been revealed during McQueen‘s  SS 10 show, “The Plato’s Atlantis Collection”, as a part of the looks of mutant creatures who embodied the mood of the collection. An unsettling mix of alien ballerinas and a surrealistic sculpture, with heels higher than 12 inches.
A shoe that was created to capture the attention and to make people talk. Try to focus on anything but the shoes when someone is wearing them!
And as if that wasn’t enough, the Armadillo were also the responsible of the first union actions on the catwalk (it seems that the super tops Abbey Lee Kershaw, Natasha Poly and Sasha Pivovarova refused to wear them because they were considered too high and dangerous).

The first celebrity that wore the Armadillo is Lady Gaga in the Bad Romance videoclip and right after her was Daphe Guinness’s time to try them for a mythical shooting with Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia. Raise your hand if you have never dreamed to walk in these fantastic monsters, just to test if it is really possible to walk with them. Unfortunately this is not so easy: there are only 21 pairs of Armadillo in the world, costing from 3,900 to 10,000 $ depending on materials. Definitely out of my budget.

Francesca Cortesi – http://simplyfrabulous.blogspot.com

She is an Italian blogger based in Stockholm. She is a fashion lover but not a fashion victim, she loves strawberries, high heels, discovering something absolutely unique in a vintage fair and finding by chance new and unexpected places.

After a career as a fashion pr, she decided to leave Milan and open her own blog, to express her personal point view on fashion and style. She is always looking for new designers, new talented bloggers and stories that she can tell using images or words.

Follow her at http://simplyfrabulous.blogspot.com

Photos via Elle.com.

Inspirational languid and often extreme poses that make me dream of other worlds, are the reason why I am so in love with fashion magazines.

But what would happen if the same poses were carried to the real world by normal women? Obviously they would be verging on the ridiculous and kitsch, creating uncomfortable feelings in the audience.

This is the raw nerve on which the Spanish artist Yolanda Domínguez concentrates her critique, with the performance “Poses”.

The video ... Read More »]]>

An inspirational video that make me stop for a while and reflect, because we all need a a bit of self-criticism sometimes.

Inspirational languid and often extreme poses that make me dream of other worlds, are the reason why I am so in love with fashion magazines.

But what would happen if the same poses were carried to the real world by normal women? Obviously they would be verging on the ridiculous and kitsch, creating uncomfortable feelings in the audience.

This is the raw nerve on which the Spanish artist Yolanda Domínguez concentrates her critique, with the performance “Poses”.

The video here below is a résumé of a living performance presented in Madrid. A group of common women, very far from the stereotype of models but perfectly real, transfer in daily settings (a park in the city, the queue in a museum, the bus stop, the supermarket) the glamour allure of fashion shootings.

The result is grotesque, especially if we stop and look at the astonished and disgusted reactions of the audience and we consider that this is the same audience that would look ecstatically at a fashion advertising whit a model striking the same pose.

With this performance Yolanda Domínguez wants to make clear how ridiculous and insane the fashion world is, and she allows us, convinced fashionistas (but with a brain), to stop for a while and reflect.

Francesca Cortesi – http://simplyfrabulous.blogspot.com

She is an Italian blogger based in Stockholm. She is a fashion lover but not a fashion victim, she loves strawberries, high heels, discovering something absolutely unique in a vintage fair and finding by chance new and unexpected places.

After a career as a fashion pr, she decided to leave Milan and open her own blog, to express her personal point view on fashion and style. She is always looking for new designers, new talented bloggers and stories that she can tell using images or words.

Follow her at http://simplyfrabulous.blogspot.com

* The most expensive shoes in the world are Italian. It’s a pair of Giuseppe Zanotti’s sandals, realized in collaboration with Chopard for the last Festival of Cannes.

*600 briolette in different nuances of pink for a total amount of 360 karats. Pink tourmalines and sapphires, diamonds and rubies transform the ankle strap of the shoe in a real jewel, in fact it could be removed from the shoes and be worn as a ... Read More »]]>

Idolized, photographed and beloved by celebrities and by all of us, the Italian shoes are the joy of all the shoe addicted, but perhaps not everyone knows that…

* The most expensive shoes in the world are Italian. It’s a pair of Giuseppe Zanotti’s sandals, realized in collaboration with Chopard for the last Festival of Cannes.

*600 briolette in different nuances of pink for a total amount of 360 karats. Pink tourmalines and sapphires, diamonds and rubies transform the ankle strap of the shoe in a real jewel, in fact it could be removed from the shoes and be worn as a bracelet.
This treasure was sold by auction during the annual Amfar gala and the revenue of 140.000 euros was completely donated for the AIDS research.

* Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Hayworth and Marlene Dietrich had something in common… the passion for Salvatore Ferragamo’s shoes, and for this reason he is regarded as the “Diva’s shoemaker”.
At Ferragamo Museum in Florence is possible to admire the wooden forms that the master used to create customized shoes for the Divas, as well as some memorabilia. These included the famous pink pumps worn by Marilyn in Cukor’s movie “Let’s make love” (1960). These 9 cm heels gave her the typical sensual walk that drove (and still drive) crazy men all over the world.

* Italian invented perfumed shoes, the Brio Italiano’s ballerinas. These ballerinas are made of recyclable rubber, perfumed with Mediterranean essences and scents inspired by Amalfitans coast.

* The platform is an art and Italian master shoemakers, know how to interpret it. For this reason the MOMA of NY dedicated to the art of Italian platforms the exposition “INNER TREASURES – The secret story of a fashionable platform in Italy”, a celebration of platforms, from 30′s to nowadays.

* In Elsa Schiapparelli’s brilliant surrealistic mind, a pair of shoes could be transformed in a hat.

* The art of Italian shoes could be expressed also with sculptures. The Italian sculptor Graziano Spinosi realized 20 pairs of shoes, realized with poor materials and industrial wastes, and dedicated to 20 famous artists. Spinosi’s “patocche” (that is the name of the work) are a way of interpreting the life of the artist and representing it in a form of a pair of shoes. For this reason Marta Graham’s “patocche” are made of glass mosaic and Le Corbusier’s one are made in reinforced concrete.

Francesca Cortesi – http://simplyfrabulous.blogspot.com

She is an italian blogger based in Stockholm. She is a fashion lover but not a fashion victim, she loves strawberries, high heels, discovering something absolutely unique in a vintage fair and finding by chance new and unexpected places.

After a career in “fashion pr” she decided to leave Milan and open her own blog, to express her personal view on fashion and style. She is always looking for new designers, new talented bloggers and histories that she can tell using images or words. Follow her at http://simplyfrabulous.blogspot.com

Photo credit: Antidote Magazine, The Denim issue. Ph. Thomas Lagrange