Shoes!

Finally, with the new camera I bought J for Christmas, here are the shoes I made this fall. I am also still working on a pair of sandals that I didn't finish in class.


These are my early sketches. I still wish I had spent more time searching out green & yellow leather, but my budget and time allotment did not intersect at a place where green and yellow leathers existed.



Once I bought my lasts and materials, and practiced my first pullovers, I sketched out what my final projects would look like. The bright pastel green pebbled leather interior of Kempton 2 is my favorite detail. Kempton 3 has a knitted patch on the front and is trimmed in wool. The name of my shoe styles come from the last, which says Kempton on it. Kempton is also the name of the town where my sister lives.



The final shoes! Kempton 3 is on the left, it has a wool sock liner & contrast brown insole. Kempton 2 on the right has contrasting tongue and quarters (brown & pink, hard to see in these pics). To make the bumpy toes I learned how to build up my last. The most difficult part for me was the sewing because I stubbornly refused to buy new needles and bobbin cases for the machines at school. So I wrestled with my domestic machine instead. Everything got sewn eventually, but looking back I wish I'd just spent the $20 or whatever.

Prada

Some pics of the Prada spring show took my breath away a few weeks ago, and I've been meaning to post some of my Prada favorites ever since. These are across several seasons, and a few scans from my old mags.


S/S 2008


S/S 2008 Beautiful shoes in this collection


2008 Resort


S/S 2006 I love the slouchy grey stockings


S/S 2006 The bathing suit I want to wear!


A/W 2001 Beautiful coats from this collection

You can track one of Miuccia's favoritte elements throughout her collections, the thick black line:


A/W 2005 Headband


S/S 2006 Straps


A/W 2007 Ankles


S/S 2008 Neck

The first collection I remember really falling in love with was from the 90s (I think), and was sort of 70s polyester uniform looking. Remember? I can't find images of any of it anywhere! I did find a clipping in one of my sketchbooks from not too long ago of some things I love:

Did you see this?

It was here recently, with this info:

Takkiainen...is designed to help the wearer to get in contact with others. Since we brush against each other every day as we move around in the city, we can use our clothes as a medium for meeting people and communicating with them. The jacket is made out of Velcro strips of different widths that have been sewn together side by side to form alternating hook and pile stripes.

And from there I clicked to the designers sweet website:
www.com-pa-ny.com
And then I saw all of their other awesome work, my favorites:


Dance shoes


Beard wear

Masai Barefoot Technology

They call it "physiological footwear". MBTs, as they are known, were invented by Swiss engineer Karl Müller. He found improvement in his back paiin after walking barefoot in the rice paddies of Korea and set out to develop shoes that mimicked walking on soft substances (like the East African savannah).

I would love love love to have a pair of these shoes, but they are so so ugly. If you read the bit on their site about how they work, it's amazing! But look:





And seriously, those are the best I can come up with on the site. I'm sure you can go on there and say, "oh these ones are better than what she picked" but then you will look at what you picked and realize that they are ugly too.

MBT: You could do better than this!! Hire a good designer! I want some awesome shoes that look good AND feel good. (Can you tell I'm taking a footwear seminar right now?)

EDITED to add: Okay, I found some mildly acceptable ones on Zappos, but still not great: