Shoes and Champagne
Can I begin by mentioning how annoying a taxi strike is in New York? The one good thing is that the weather is gorgeous and so standing on a street corner flailing desperately for a cab isn't so bad. I had been pretty lucky being able to walk to most shows or take the subway, but Thursday I had to get from 10th Avenue and 36th Street to Union Square in about 10 minutes. Not a cab was in sight, when one of those little pedicabs pulls up. You know, the kind powered by a guy on a bicycle. I'm a little iffy about these things and tend to believe passengers should wear a helmet -- just in case. But these were dire circumstances. For $20, a very cute bicycler agreed to ferry me down to Union Square in 15 minutes or less. I'm here to tell you that I LOVE pedicabs. He whisked me right through traffic without incident, chatting all the while about fashion and how he was making boat loads of money thanks to the strike. I hear they charge based on how far you're going, whether it's uphill or downhill and how much you weigh. I suspect if I hadn't had that blueberry muffin for lunch I might have gotten away with a $15 bill.
Pedicab is the way to go during a taxi strike (Chip East/Bloomberg News)
I finished up my evening with champagne and snacks at Saks Fifth Avenue. The company was celebrating the opening of its new designer shoe floor, which is "so big it has its own zip code." Yes, the shoe salon at Saks has a zip code of 10022-shoe.
I'm here to report that the salon is indeed enormous. It is big enough to make a shoe freak break out into a cold sweat. And how smart were those Saks folks to invite over a bunch of fashion editors, ply them with alcohol and then let them loose in the shoe salon? Oh yeah, a spectacular pair of Chloe pumps in chocolate brown had my name all over them. So what if they had a 4-inch heel. The taxi strike ends on Friday!
Chloe's Cinderella boots
But what's with bootmakers creating knee-high boots so narrow your calf can't fit into them? I don't have toothpick calves -- in Italy they call them athletic calves -- but even women with teeny-tiny calves were having Chloe boot issues. I was not the first woman to try on the $1,235 Chloe boots. Not that I was going to buy them, I just wanted to admire them on my legs. Really. Couldn't zip 'em up. The woman next to me -- she of the tiny calves -- couldn't zip them either. They were like the Cinderella boots, waiting for some woman whose calves have never seen a treadmill.
By Robin Givhan |
September 7, 2007; 7:47 AM ET
New York
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Posted by: Anonymous | September 7, 2007 11:14 AM
Robin, It's so refreshing to read your blog again! Your voice is so delightfully acerbic, and you are wonderfully sharp eyed. I can't wait to hear about your reactions to the collections by Ms. Toledo and Mr. Rodriguez. Have fun and drink some champagne for us office drones!
Posted by: HCKG | September 7, 2007 2:22 PM
Your articles are great! The thing with the Cinderella boots is very funny :) . Looking forward for your articles.
Posted by: soralunii | September 8, 2007 4:53 AM
Greetings from Paris. Curious about the boots. Yesterday I spent about four hours walking about the Marais (Vielle du Temple) where at the AIDES benefit show at Yvon Lambert there were at least five girls in mini skirts sporting cowboy boots (in the Frye boot tradition). While I'd thought that look disappeared 2 years ago, apparently it's caught fire again (here). I suppose with more leather the prices are thigh high. If the heels aren't took clunky, the girls can still ride on the Vélibs w/out much hassel.
Best,
Matthew Rose / Paris
http://lalandedigitalpress.blogspot.com/
Posted by: MATTHEW ROSE | September 9, 2007 6:19 AM
Thank you for saying that about the boots. You literally made my day. I thought it was just my calves, which were big even when I was skinny skinny. Why? Because I have strong legs!
Posted by: johnslau | September 9, 2007 9:18 PM
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Yeah....you're back!!!! I can't wait to follow you all around the global fashion scene. Welcome back.
Perky