A friend once asked me what my favorite brands were. I listed my usual: Marc Jacobs, Banana Republic and Rachel Pally. "Oh," she said. "I thought Coach would have been one of your favorites, too, since you have so much stuff from there." I was dumbfounded. Really? REALLY???! But she was absolutely right. I do own a lot of Coach items and interestingly I don't consider them among my favorite brands.
Like many fashion bloggers who are not fans of Coach, I discount them as a great brand because they often bring the fug. Their logo print and that horrible patchwork thing they do appeal only to the label-whoriest label-whores. They can also make their bags too busy by piling on the hardware. As a mid-luxury brand, Coach often tries to extend itself into high-luxury territory with ridiculous results. (A $7,000 bag from COACH??? Does this company know who their customer is??? Do they know who they are? Why would I buy a Coach bag when I can get an Hermes Birkin for nearly the same price??)
So you might be wondering where exactly is the "ode" part in this post. There is an area where Coach absolutely excells, and that is the everyday, functional boot. If you were unaware, they are the master of this style. Every Fall, I end up buying a new pair of Coach leather boots. Not because I need to, because their boots hold up remarkably well, but because they will have a new style that is more fabulous than the one I had last year. The quality of the leather is exquisite. The materials, the seams and the craftsmanship of the boots are impeccable. These are the boots you will wear everyday to run errands in with jeans or with your work slacks because you need a "comfy-heel" day. These aren't the boots you're going to wear when you want to look fierce, but they are the ones you can live in comfortably and still feel stylish when you leave the house. As a testament to the comfort factor of Coach boots, on a particularly busy day of hanging out with friends last year, I walked TWO MILES in my favorite pair of Coach boots without a blister or pain.
These are the "two mile" boots I bought last Fall. They still look pretty good after quite a bit of wear. Did I mention I also wore them in the rain?
I ordered the Maxene boot in black for this Fall. I just couldn't resist them! And they're available in this season's hottest color: gray.
The Weslyn boot is a charming riding style as well.
For those of you who don't find the Coach logo print as appalling as I do, try the Meadow boot.
Try this tip: Always take new boots to the cobbler to have a rubber sole added to the existing sole of the shoe. This lengthens the life of the boot and makes it more comfortable since the rubber absorbs some of the shock your feet will feel from walking on concrete sidewalks and streets.
Did you ever wish you could find out immediately when your favorite brands go on sale at various stores? ShopItToMe.com does just that. You just select your favorite apparel brands (including great labels like Marc Jacobs, Prada, Banana Republic, Ella Moss and Juicy Couture), your size, the types of items you want (pants, dresses, etc.) and this site will search several online stores and send you an email with the sale items it finds. How awesome is that?! You can also choose how often you want to get emails (daily, twice a week, etc.). So check it out!
If Steve Madden is going to keep knocking off the maestro, Christian Louboutin, I'm going to keep bringing it to your attention, dear readers! 
On the left, we have the Steve Madden Larrk which retails for $129.95. On the right, we have Christian Louboutin's Caracalo Patent Zip Pump which sells for $910. While $910 seems a lot for a shoe, my personal experience tells me that this is the better buy than the Steve Madden copy.
I'm a sucker for a d'orsay pump. It's a style that manages to be classic and feminine while the cut elongates the leg. I was particularly intrigued by these Manolo Blahnik lace hair calf d'orsays because of the unusual cut-outs. I could see this shoe looking great with jeans and a white shirt or a beautiful brown tweed dress for Fall. But with a $775 price tag, these Manolos will have to remain in my dreams...
I had a fun day of shopping in Soho with friends yesterday and I couldn't help but notice that every store we went to seemed to have some variation of the shirt dress. While this is a pretty classic style that seems to rear its head every few seasons, like anything in fashion you need to be mindful of proportions and fit and find a version of the trend that works for you.
Since its debut in 2005, the Marc Jacobs Stam Bag has been a must-have for fashionistas. Inspired by Chanel with its quilting and chain handle and named after model Jessica Stam, the Stam looks great dressed down with jeans or dressed up with a classic dress. With a price tag of $1,350, a real Stam is out of the price range for most of us fashionistas who weren't born with a trust fund.
To quote The Devil Wears Prada, "Ladies and gentlemen, gird your loins!" It's time for the Barney's Warehouse Sale! For New Yorkers, this means sifting through racks and racks of clothing and accessories in an extremely crowded store to find that gem of a designer item at one third of the price. Here are the details:
DATE: August 16th - September 3rd
Monday to Friday: 10 AM to 9 PM
Saturday and Sunday: 10 AM to 7PM
Get a head start on 8/16 and 8/17 when the sale starts at 8AM
WHERE: 255 W. 17th St., b/t Seventh & Eighth Aves.
I am the woman who lived in her shoes. Literally. There are shoes in almost every available storage space in my apartment. There are shoes in the bedroom closet. There are also shoes in the additional wardrobe my husband and I purchased since there wasn't enough room for all my clothes in the bedroom closet. There are also shoes in the linen closet, the coat closet and the storage closet. The one room that has not been used for shoe storage is the kitchen and that is because I fear the heat would damage my shoes.
I suffer from the problem of too much quantity and not enough quality. How many times have you been to a Nine West or Steve Madden sale and thought to yourself, "$40 for shoes?! Oh, why not?! I'd be crazy not to buy them at that price!" I've said this way too many times and now I'm drowning in shoes. But I've come to realize that although these shoes may seems like a bargain, you're not saving anything at all.
Let me present Exhibit A:
I purchased these Aerosoles slides in 2003. I know that may seem like a long time ago, but they are summer sandals and I don't wear them very often. Imagine my surprise, as I was walking to my office and my left foot began to feel like it was in a shoe that was a half size too large. The poor man-made materials, which I had thought were leather, on my cheap shoes had fallen apart!
Here's a better look at the damage:
Exhibit B: I also recently purchased these Nine West sandals since I thought they were a fun take on the gladiator style.
While they haven't fallen apart and are comfortable, they make an embarassing, loud squeaking noise when I walk. Unfortunately, I can never sneak up on anyone in my Nine West gladiator sandals.
Exhibit C: These are the Steve Madden knock-offs of those Christian Louboutin shoes I've been talking about for weeks.
I try to enforce a strict "no knock-offs" policy when it comes to my shopping out of respect for designer creativity, but I simply couldn't resist these. I knew I couldn't afford the real thing and these looked so sexy on. Big mistake! These are virtually impossible to walk in. They pinch at the toes and they give blisters in the heel. After an hour of wear, I had to hobble my way into an Ann Taylor Loft and purchase some flip-flops.
The moral of the story: I bought these Burberry ballet flats in 2003. (The same year as the Aerosole shoes mentioned above.)
Ballet flats can carry you across several seasons and I've worn these pretty frequently. With the occasional re-soling and cleaning, these shoes have held their shape and maintained the quality of their materials for four years! The style is classic and I'm sure I'll wear them for years to come. I remember buying these four years ago for $300 and thinking how expensive they are. But in reality, since I've been able to wear them so frequently (as opposed to those Steve Madden shoes I'll probably never wear again), the money spent was far less wasteful than what I've spent on other shoes.
I know that there are exceptions to the rule, but frequently you do get what you pay for. It is possible to find inexpensive shoes that are comfortable, but where you'll feel the pinch (pardon the pun!), is that you won't be able to wear the shoes for years like you will with shoes made of quality materials. If I took all the money I have spent on cheap shoes this year, I would be able to buy a pair of real Louboutins. So take a lesson from me and skip some of those "sales" and save your money for classic styles by the best shoe designers you can afford. Your feet and your wallet will thank you.
I was in Banana Republic today, minding my own business, and this dress spoke to me. Here's what it said:
Those fabulous Christian Louboutin shoes that were designed for Roland Mouret's recent RM fashion show have been knocked off by Steve Madden. Compare and contrast...
Christian Louboutin Emily Shoe Boot $925
Steve Madden Chap $149.95
Is imitation the greatest form of flattery? Or is it the best way to profit off of someone else's talent? I can't say for sure. I think we all know that when you purchase a knock-off of a designer shoe, you may have something that looks like the real thing but won't be made with the quality of the materials and the craftsmanship of the original. But the reality is, how many of us can afford a $925 Christian Louboutin shoe? And Louboutin has so taken over the shoe world recently that it seems like everyone is knocking him off. Those stunning heels you're wearing right now could be a Louboutin knock-off and you don't even know it. I will leave it up to you to decide based on your budget and fashion needs what you will buy.
I've never been pregnant but God-willing I will be by the end of this year! My friends with children have all told me about the many changes that happen to a woman's body during pregnancy. One that I am not looking forward to (since I have a pretty extensive shoe collection), is that some women's feet grow an entire shoe size by the time they give birth. That would explain why moms-to-be Isla Fisher and Naomi Watts chose to wear super-comfy Birkenstocks while out in Hollywood.
Birkenstock Gizeh Sandals $100
I'm not a Birkenstocks woman, so when I'm looking for comfort in a shoe, I gravitate towards something a little more glam like this:
Beverly Feldman White Leather Sandals $215
Who says comfort can't be fabulous?
As you may remember, I've been contemplating purchasing a Bulga handbag for a few months now. I just wasn't willing to pay $600 or more for one. In the hierarchy of labels that exists in my mind (Marc Jacobs being at the top of that hierarchy), Bulga is just not a brand I am willing to shell out major cash for. I think Bulga makes lovely handbags but they have not established the brand cache in the fashion world that would make it justifiable to spend that kind of money on their accessories.
Although I had been invited to the Bulga Sample Sale, my schedule was so hectic that week that I wasn't able to attend. But lo and behold, a few weeks ago I was doing one of my daily checks of my favorite online stores' sale pages and I found the Bulga Double Strap Pocket Satchel on sale at Neiman Marcus and ShopBop! Wahoo! Both stores had the bag on sale in all colors for $446. While this was a good deal since the bag was originally priced at $638, I still thought that was a little high. So every morning I would go back and check both stores and hope that the bag would go down in price a little more. Miraculously one morning, as I was sipping my coffee at work and trying to get ready for the long day ahead, I clicked onto the Bulga brand listing on ShopBop and saw that the Double Strap Pocket Satchel had went down to $319! I wanted to spin around in my chair, shake my cubicle-mate and shout, "The Bulga bag I want is HALF-PRICED!!!!" But she wouldn't have cared and I would have looked foolish. I contained my excitement and went ahead and ordered the bag.
My purse came in the mail about six days later and I love it. The leather is buttery soft and it's the perfect size for all my essentials (wallet, make-up kit, Ipod, Blackberry) as well as a good book to read on the subway ride home from work. And, of course, there's nothing as satisfying as getting something you want at a bargain price. The peculiar part of this story is that the bag I bought is back to full price on ShopBop. That just goes to show that being a power shopper and finding a good deal requires vigilance, determination and just a little good luck. Happy shopping!
Christian Louboutin Round-Toe Mary Janes $625
Anna Corinna Mini City Tote $413
If it's just too early for you to think about Fall, use this coupon to get 10% to 15% off at Bloomingdale's stores on sale items through July 4th. Happy shopping!
Look what arrived in my inbox today:
