Shoe Battles: Going Toe-to-Toe in Stilettos

Shoe Battles: Going Toe-to-Toe in Stilettos



The shoe department of Bergdorf Goodman, on the morning of May 29, looked like “an insane asylum of very well-dressed women,” said Sasha Charnin Morrison, the fashion director of Us Weekly, who was reporting from the front lines of what has become an annual rite of spring in Manhattan: the first day of the designer shoe sale.



In one room of the sprawling, glittering, intoxicating Shangri-La of shoes that begins at the top of the escalator on the second floor, were the smaller sizes: Manolo Blahnik pumps made of shiny turquoise patent leather ($322, down from $645); piles of citron and mint Lanvin leather ballerina flats ($247, from $495); and surreal pink pumps covered in blue crystals from Giuseppi Zanotti ($1,097, from $2,195). In another room were similarly decadent displays in larger sizes, beckoning from the racks like abandoned puppies.



“You know the way that men lose their minds when they look at cars?” Ms. Charnin Morrison said. “It was the same thing. You had every major brand on sale. Everybody lost their minds. The prices are insane, and yet I could tell you a million reasons why they are justified.”



The designer shoe industry, to some extent, relies on the willful suspension of rational thinking, the giving over to a more primal urge (to shop, that is) in order to move merchandise that common sense would suggest is patently, obscenely, even self-destructively overpriced.You are currently browsing the tsg archives for "burberryhandbags".



Shoes are an especially fetishized subject in fashion, but it is only since the late 1990s, not coincidentally at the start of the television series “Sex and the City,” that they have become what they are today, with warring retailers, an influx of new players on the battleground each season, and very little price resistance demonstrated by consumers,Cheap coolerbag top quality online,100% authentic guarantee. even when the market has all the characteristics of another fashion bubble.



Here, a pair of raspberry suede espadrilles, among the most basic styles available at a luxury store like Bergdorf, can cost $495. The soles may be mere rope, but they’re Jimmy Choo, after all. Prices for pumps now commonly range from $600 to $1,400, and boots can cost $2,000 or more. At the top of the hierarchy of luxury footwear designers, Christian Louboutin makes a Lady Spiked Leopard-Print Platform Pump with a 5 3/4-inch heel for $1,595. Versions of his shoes in exotic skins,If you do seek for a site offering hermesbeant, then stop here right away! like crocodile, can cost as much as $4,645, which, it is strange to say, is anything but exceptional in this world.



For luxury retailers, expensive shoes have become a lucrative business, among the most profitable at Saks Fifth Avenue, for example. At Barneys New York,Stay up to date on the latest team rider and laceweddingveils releases. sales of shoes are three to four times higher per square foot than in any other department. The average purchase in the shoe department there is about $850, among the highest in the city.



While designer apparel may not have fully recovered from the shock of the recession,Purchase formaldressesevening online, stay updated on team riders, latest news and events. shoes have proved far more resilient, because they offer more perceived value to a customer than a designer dress that she might wear only a few times.



“Women have figured out quickly that shoes are a less expensive way of updating your wardrobe,” said Bonnie Takhar, the president of Charlotte Olympia, which makes exceedingly playful shoes like a wedge sandal designed to look like a wicker picnic basket ($1,995). “Plus they make you look taller.”



So it is not surprising that shoe salons in Manhattan’s fanciest stores have expanded at a breakneck pace over the last five years, or that the battle to become the ultimate showplace for shoes has gone global. Macy’s in New York, with its 39,000-square-foot shoe department introduced last year, has claimed the title of “world’s largest” from competitors like Galeries Lafayette in Paris and Selfridges in London. Saks, Barneys and Bergdorf, meanwhile, face the potential of yet another competitor in the next decade once Nordstrom, well-known for the breadth and service of its shoe departments, realizes its plan to open a store on West 57th Street.



In the shoe wars, the question is just how big they need to be to win, without risking casualties.



“WE ALL SIT AROUND and talk about the price of shoes,” said Ronald Frasch, the president and chief merchandising officer of Saks. But prices of everything in designer fashion, from handbags to men’s suits to swimwear to shorts, have increased so precipitously over the last decade that a pair of shoes can seem more justifiable when compared to a pair of equally expensive pants.



In 2007, when Saks introduced a footwear department on its eighth floor so big that the store, in a clever marketing move, gave it its own vanity ZIP code, 10022-SHOE, it set off what would ultimately become the great shoe wars of retail. Barneys introduced its floor-wide shoe department last year, with shoes displayed in large gilded cages and copious cushy seating, drawing comparisons to Saks. And now Bergdorf Goodman has announced plans to expand its department by 20 percent this fall.



Click on their website www.pickmypumps.com for more information.

タグ：chiffon bridesmaid dress