The sassy marriage of Suede and Patent

Alejandro Ingelmo, a fourth generation shoemaker from Miami (now based in New York), is getting a lot of notice for his metallic shoes this season, appearing in Town & Country, Vogue, and WWD in March, June, and July of 2008 respectively. WWD calls his shoes "city slick" and "stunners (that) glide from day to night". His designs are rising fast in recognition and even got Madonna's nod after she wore his shoes for her H&M campaign. He started his women's shoe collection in 2006 and his men's collection shortafter. Some of his shoes are on sale at Gilt Groupe, and the only one I LOVEEEE is the Spider shoes above ($278 sale price, but sold out). The overlaying of its straps is exotic and exciting. Note that the patent material is set on the backdrop of suede, which makes the strappings pop without being overwhelming. It's perfect for the dominatrix in me and it's so edgy that I could wear it with the frilliest things and still look cool. And cool is good. However, I can't get it at the discount price so I won't get it at all.

But to console myself, I did get a pair of peep-toe slingbacks from Charles and Keith (on sale for ~1500NT at the basement level of Breeze) back in March for my friend's engagement party. It's much more demure and lady-like (as it needs to be for engagement parties), but look!!! There is a thin strip of patent on top of the suede on my shoes too!!! And the fun tidbit of this story is, my first exposure to Charles and Keith was when my friend (the one whose engagement I bought my shoes for) visited me in Singapore back in 2000 and she bought a pair of white sandals, which she claims to one of the most comfortable pair of sandals she owned. It was so comfortable that she repaired it many times before finally throwing it away from too much wear-and-tear. Many of my cousins and aunts in Indonesia also buy Charles and Keith religiously whenever they visit Singapore, and they have gathered dozens of Charles and Keith shoes in their shoe closet. On another note, Charles and Keith has only been in Taiwan for about 3 years, and I'm sure many are glad that it's available here.