Sea of Shoes

The Boot Dilemma

Sigh. The dilemma of the must-have shoe...

This has been something that has troubled me all summer...though I was mostly unimpressed by the crop of footwear this season, the few standout shoes have been on my mind a lot. Ann Demeulemeester, Givenchy, Dries van Noten...but which one is the must have?

By early June I had decided (and my mom had as well) that the triple-lace-up low heel boots at Ann Demeulemeester were the only must.

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Or at least, we had thought so until we saw them in person. We wanted to love these shoes, we really did. They have this awesome shit-kicker, Sid Vicious, crusty punk feel to them. But the boot was a lot wider and the toe a lot rounder than it had looked on the runway. I don't have dainty tiny feet to begin with and neither does my mom. (I'm a size 39, she's a size 40/41) We were bummed out that our favorite boots hadn't been all we had hoped for but we moved on.

My new love interest was a certain open toe bandage strapped Givenchy boot.

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I love the wooden wedge and chunky straps on this boot and would love to own these shoes, I think they're fabulous. I was pretty much settled on these Givenchy's as my 'must-haves' until yesterday when mom brought home these. The exes. Only this time they looked a hell of a lot better.

 

The awkwardly placed wooden heel on the Ann Demuelemeester boots took these boots to a whole new level of avant-punk and minimized the club-foot effect of the toe. It was love at first sight-they look great on my mom and hopefully she'll let me snap a few pictures of her in them. I had to try them on too, of course.

(Notice something different about my backdrop? Our office has been renovated this week! I want to spend all of my time here now)
I wear the Ann Demeulemeester boots with Levi's jeans, a wool sweater by Tulsa designer Terasa Fadem, a shirt I know nothing about, and a scarf I got in Marrakesh)

These boots quickly made me re-think my must-have boot this fall...scratch the Givenchy's, I'm into these lace up punk scarecrow boots now. I think I'm going to get my pair this weekend. I am so happy!

The Ann Demeulemeester boots weren't the only pair of fabulous shoes my mom brought home yesterday. Check out these Dries van Notens: I'm crazy jealous! I stole them to try on last night.

Monkey see, monkey do: copying from the Dries van Noten runways.

Thanks for letting me mooch, Mom. Isn't that vintage coat so now? I got it on eBay two years ago! I can't wait to wear it this fall.

Updates on the boot situation to come, love always,
jane

Today I wear

Excuse my poor photography...

and thank you to Who What Wear Daily for choosing me for a Myspace muse feature and thank you to the sweet reader that nominated me!

Today's Inspiration Board (#?)

Busy with a new puppy!

Meet Shelley, the newest resident in the Sea of Shoes household as of Friday. She's a three month old 'maltipoo' (stupid name, cute breed-its a maltese and poodle mix) and is the cutest tiniest thing you've ever seen. Staci-the hideous orange oversized rat with catfish whiskers you may have glimpsed on Sea of Shoes from time to time-feels very threatened by our designer puppy. To add injury to insult she's been wearing a skunk costume for a good part of this weekend as well. Poor Staci...she's still my favorite dog.

It's really difficult to get a good picture of Shelley because she never stops moving...

See what I mean?

(Never got around to posting the picture I took of the above outfit...here it is)

I'm wearing a J. Crew pleated front cotton shirt, Y-3 skirt, vintage rhinestone necklace, and my mom's Chloe open toe boots.

Sigh...today is officially the last day of summer. Tomorrow is my first day of my junior year and I have to dig my hideous school uniform out of my closet.

Evolution of an outfit

Sometimes just the act of putting on a piece of clothing can give you a lot of ideas of how to wear it. I'd been thinking about how to wear this Ralph Lauren striped turtleneck (with a cute little embroidered emblem on it) and tried on the first outfit, tweaked it until it became the second outfit, which evolved into the third outfit, etc etc

1. Ralph Lauren turtleneck, Ralph Lauren jodphur (both from thrift stores), Marni heels, gold chain necklaces
2. Same shirt and necklaces, with a Pierre Cardin velvet coat (from thrift store), vintage 501's, Alaia heels (which are polka dotted though you cant tell from this picture sadly)
3. Same shirt and necklaces, with a leather and fox fur jacket (from thrift store), Hysteric Glamour jeans and mid-calf Chloe harnessed boots
4. Same shirt, Dries van Noten marbled slip dress, Tom Binns floral Faux Real cuff, black patent Marni heels, and a silk scarf tied into a bow

I guess I'll be wearing this turtleneck a lot this fall. I'm already trying to come up with some fall outfits-I'm anxious to wear my favorite fuzzy sweaters and leather jackets that have been collecting dust in my closet all summer long.

My new Tom Binns floral cuff

For the last year (or two?) I've been totally in love with the series of cuffs Tom Binns designed with the faux crystal flower motifs, and I am extremely excited to have one now! They reminded me a bit of some of the jewelry little Edie (of Grey Gardens fame) used to wear. I appreciate really heavy jewelry and this cuff is nice and weighty. Wearing it kind of feels like you stuck your fist through a disco ball-it throws little rainbows of light everywhere you go.

Today I wear it with a J. Crew t shirt, Marni heels, and a Dries van Noten skirt my mother purchased in 89 and has handed down to me! The more I wear this skirt the more I love it...it is one of the most special pieces of my wardrobe. I have a feeling I'll be wearing this all the time this winter-I am getting into really long skirts.

Lately

It's been raining here in Texas-I can hardly believe it. I took this picture today of the sky-

This made it the perfect day to wear my new hat-its a rabbit fur felt and floppy and pinky-beige.  I stupidly left it in my friends car yesterday so no close up pictures today...but I'll remember to take some when I get it back.

 

I wore a Miu Miu skirt, random tshirt, I think the label of the cardigan is Genevieve (got it at Anthropologie), and Chloe boots.

Today I went with my mom to her antique dealer Jan's (of Hot Tamale Antiques) cabin in Aledo. It's always really inspiring to go there; you can see why from looking at some of these pictures I took there!

and a very lazy outfit today-I thought it was kind of lame how I matched my tube top to my shoes but I honestly didn't mean to, it was the nearest tube top lying around ;P

Y-3 drop crotch sweatpants, slashed tank top, teal tube top and Marni elastic band-ed flats

Till next time, thanks for reading and thanks to the sweet people who always comment! :)

New Shapes for boots

I've been getting pretty excited about the new crop of structural boots that showed up on several runways this fall. A lot of these futuristic boots relied on heavy stacking to create a scrunchy sillouhette-but then there were also the zip flap boots at Rick Owens and the slick and straight boots at Phillip Lim and Givenchy Haute Couture. The thing that grabs me about these boots are that they are agressively unfeminine-and some might say 'unflattering'. A lot of people looked at the boots at Balenciaga Pre Fall and cried 'cankles' (maybe an explanation of this term is in line for foreign readers-its when the diameter of the ankle is almost equal to that of the calf-though a friend used to tell me it was an abbrieviation of 'cow ankles') but having my ankles swathed in buttery bunches of leather sounds irresistably new and exciting. Wearing a boot that doesn't flow with the natural lines of the body sounds totally modern to me. They look tough and they look futuristic-I am really really inspired by how the Balenciaga Pre Fall boots were styled with an ankle skimming, draping floral dress. It's an excellent juxtaposition to the alien-invader look of this boot.

I hope to see this trend carry into the spring 09 collections (albeit there are far fewer boots on spring runways...)
Until then I'm dreaming of those Balenciagas and Rick Owens-I know Inaya and a few others are as crazy as I am about the lace-up 'Mega Urbo' boots on Luisaviaroma!