On the Up

As I have probably bored with you before, I am not a massive fan of designer/high street collaborations. Mostly because no matter how nice the designs the cheaper fabrics always look a bit rubbish. And that you are paying twice the price for something with a designer label that is of the same quality as the regular, cheaper ranges.

But I am prepared to eat my words because I love these collaborations with Aldo. The range is called Aldo Rise and the collaborateurs are Mark Fast (top), Libertine, Preen and JW Anderson (bottom two). They are on sale exclusively at Selfridges.

I would probably only buy the Mark Fast style as the others are less to my taste, but they are definitely interesting and look well made.

They have chosen really interesting designers, which intrigues me as I have never really considered Aldo to be particularly cutting edge.

I hope this is just the beginning of their collaborations because I think they have got off to a really good start.

(Images via Selfridges)

Now i just need to try and stop myself from buying the first Mark Fast pair because I really, really love them.

Flexible Friends

snub-nosed (snbnzd)
adj.
1. Having a short, turned-up nose.

Our opinion has actually been ASKED for darling, rather than us just giving it. This is a day to celebrate!

I like that shoe. I have tried it on myself a couple of times. For me the issue is the snubby nosed-ness of it all. I just can't make up my mind if it's TOO snubby. But this is only an issue of the wearer is snubby nosed themselves, whilch happily I don't remember Kate being. I'm sure she had a normal and very nice nose so she's clear on that potential hazard. In fact I think it's only me in the entire world who worries about the toe of a shoe making their nose look snubbier. Maybe I should stop going on and drawing attaention to it. Let's speak no more of it.

So to the height. Yeah man, they're high. But to me it's not the HEIGHT that's the issue, but the flexibility of the SOLE. Now this is important. If the sole is nice and bendy I think that even a dyed in the wool flat pump wearer can get to grips and get on with it. A hard sole though, no. You're done for and even though the wearer can take cabs everywhere and sit down at every available juncture they will have to get TO the cab, or TO the bar stool and shuffling about and trying to keep a heel on in those moments is so unglamorous the wearer might as well be in a flipper as far as I'm concerned.

I can't recall if the sole is nice and bendy or not. I think I was so mesmerised by the noseyness that I'm not going to say any more about, that I didn't have time to move in them and see how they worked but I say: try them on Kate and if there's bend, do it and if not, keep looking. Or employ young men to hoist you aloft on their manly shoulders and carry you TO the cab and TO the bar stool. That would work equally well.

Hey! People Want Our Advice!

How much do we rock? Quite a bit, actually. And I’ll go ahead and tell you why.

We have been requested, as noble CONC-erors, to offer pre-purchase advice on an item. Miss Williamson, who you sat next to at my birthday dinner, is thinking of buying these:

They are from Aldo who, as we well know, are loathe to relinquish a reasonable size picture. So please follow this link to see them in more detail.

Now, knowing Kate as I do I have to say that I am not sure I have ever seen her in a high heel in all the delightful days that I have known her. If ever there was a girl that favours a flat then it is Kate. So even though her enquiry was worded as follows: “Do I buy? I will be unable to walk in them and will have to get cabs.” I was certainly not prepared for these.

Those are not a heel for the faint of heart. Yes, there is a lot to say for them, the colour is delightful. It reminds me somewhat of Angel Delight and I find that strangely comforting. I love the metal studs. The shape is all rounded and sensuous so thumbs up there. But all I can imagine when I look at them is myself toppling out if I were to wear them.

Am I being overly cautious? It might just be because I feel suitably chastised as I went to a wedding recently in my perilously high Miu Mius even though I had been warned that the terrain was not suitable. I spent more time out of them than in. After sinking resolutely into the churchyard’s grass I couldn’t risk the suede further. I was also berated by a friend’s boyfriend that it was completely ridiculous to wear heels I couldn’t walk in (over steep, uneven and wet leaf strewn pathways I would just like to point out). I beat him down later though when he dared to suggest that his ugly shoes were decent, to which I replied that that depended entirely on one’s definition of decent.

Anyway, I digress. I think they seem quite high. Maybe they aren’t too bad and I am just being a scaredy cat. And if we are already resigned to the non-walking/cab necessitating limits of the shoes then maybe we should just go with appearances (which obviously is what shoes are all about) and say, oh yes, they sure are pretty!

Do you concur?

And if I could just add... Kate, I am beyond excited that you are considering buying these! So just for the pleasure of seeing one more girl in a lovely pair of crazy high heels I say go forth and totter!

Get Your Rocks Off

Oooh look! This is the ring I bought yesterday! I'm so pleased Aldo have it on their site. Other wise I was going to take a photo of it but it would have been a problem as The Head changed our camera to black and white on my command at J's party at the weekend and now it seems to be stuck there. No so bad in general terms because skin looks pretty in b&w. Not good for show and telling colourful rings from Aldo.However...leading on from our shoe based convo...it's too big. Are my extremities shrinking or is the world just messing with me this week? Either way, it's disconcerting.

I don't think it's dangerously, could-catapult-when-gesturing big so I think it's a keeper. Also, it 'reminds' me so much of a Victoire de Castellaine piece that I might just keep it to look at if nothing else. The only way I could own and hold a real VdeC in my (apparently Lilliputian) palm would involve the word heist and possibly a lengthy jail sentence.

Here is another which is also lovely.