Because you can't have depths without surfaces.
Linda Grant, thinking about clothes, books and other matters.
Pure Collection Ltd.
Net-a-porter UK

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Very expensive shoes

Balmain, £975

I was looking at a pair of very beautiful £1000 Ferragamo shoes in Grazia yesterday and wondering who buys £1000 shoes? Who are these for? Is this the new price of a shoe which the rest will, as it were, inch up to?

But I remembered a phone call I had the other day from someone with high placed retail contacts who told me that fashion no longer caters for London women, even rich London women. The crazy shoe and crazier bag are for our guests from Russia and the oil states. If they are holding up our retail economy with their slender manicured fingers, perhaps we should be grateful. Otherwise I would have to buy three and a third pairs of £300 shoes.

17 comments:

Mopsa said...

Can't help but wonder when conspicuous fashion consumption (and conspicuous everything else consumption)goes, well, out of fashion. The idea of even having £1000 to spend on shoes makes me really worried about the zeitgeist.

Linda Grant said...

There will always be a market for the highest end of fashion, but I think that you're right, and conspicuous consumption will indeed go out of style. Remember the days of the nylon Prada backpack?

Geraldine Ryan said...

They can have them. They're horrible.

Arabella said...

Women Of Russia! Please take these gawd-awful ugly shoes away. Thank you.

Susan B said...

Money can't buy good taste, I guess.

Duchesse said...

When I worked regularly in London in the early '80s I used to see groups of 4-6 women from oil states, giggling, buying pairs and pairs of Maude Frizon shoes at a time. They'd just point to what they wanted. There have always been very high end shoes for people to whom price is no object.

Shelley said...

Pleased to see some of the other comments echo my first thought -- who would want them at any price?

Anonymous said...

I'm with all of you: ugly shoes, and glad the Russians are willing to infuse some money into the world economy in a way that does not directly involve nuclear weaponry or drugs.

And Linda, I see the same New Frugality trend emerging in my part of the world--not just in my crowd, but also in my daughter's working-twenty-something-American-female-who-loves-to-shop demographic.

Anonymous said...

Yes, interesting. It's something I've been thinking about for a while now. If design reflects the society in which it is created then those shoes are really symbolic of the present cultural climate.

Anonymous said...

The Filene's Basement store near my office just this week put out 3 authentic Chanel bags marked down to about $2,500 each. I wonder how long they will be there...

Unknown said...

Everyone has an outspot at which they could just not imagine spending that much money on shoes and £1000 is so far beyond my out spot it is not funny!

Disneyrollergirl.net said...

Yeah I figured the same thing out last summer when I heard about how Harrods and Selfridges have a stash of uber-blingy merch behind the counter especially for their ultra-rich customers.

Jane said...

I think all those slapper cum S&M shoes are completely vile and remind me of footbinding in their uncomfortableness. It would be like wearing overpriced wire shopping baskets on your feet. There are times when shoe designers seem to be setting out to make women look foolish and this is one of them.

Give me courts anyday.

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