Wednesday, April 21, 2010

The Ol' Switcheroo


I am crazy for Proenza Schouler's shoes and their most recent Spring/Summer collection had me drooling as usual. After seeing photos of the show online, I emailed the label directly to find out if the shoes would go into production— a lot of the time runway shoes are not mass produced for the stores.

A few days later, the label responded and told me, "These shoes are currently in production and are due to deliver to stores in March. Only the white version will be available and it will be at Barneys, or Net-a-Porter.com."

I knew it would take months and months for their price to be reduced enough that I could afford them, but I was excited nonetheless.


Today, they finally showed up on Net-a-Porter.com.

And for some reason, I wasn't nearly as in love with them as I had been when they were on the runway. Something felt off.


Here are the shoes on Net-a-Porter.


And here are the shoes on Proenza Schouler's website. Hmm, wait a minute . . . what happened to the heel?

As a connoisseur of "out there" heels, I instantly fell in love with the runway version of the shoe. The way that the outlining takes on a slightly different shape than the heel, the wood grain, the elegantly sculpted platform— all of these make this a fascinating shoe. The heel demands to be looked at, and enhances the rest of the shoe immensely.

The plastic heel that they replaced it with is heavy and cold. It's as if the shoe went through a complete personality reversal. Your eye doesn't travel across the shoe the way it does when that complex heel is in place— you get sucked into a shiny black abyss.


I know that runway pieces are sometimes too expensive to mass produce, but in this case, I wish they had increased the price tag and kept the original heel. Proenza Schouler's runway shoes are always perfection. Why mess with that?

(Proenza Schouler runway shoes photos from Style.com, Net-a-Porter.com, and ProenzaSchouler.com)


7 comments:

ronel said...

great shoes, thanks for the info :)

regards: ronel

Julia said...

saw them in real life [outside of just the BG windows because they often pull samples/run way pieces but I don't think for shoes]

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kzuw0lkcMd1qzh86so1_500.jpg

they did look cheap in person and I think it's kind of a stupid business move for designers to not produce pieces that are in demand by consumers. Don't make a thousand of them but make like 300 pairs and know it'll sell out at any price point if people want them [case in point, s|s 2010 miu miu prints]

Sergio said...

So strange.... The heel was the best part of the design. It was such a great combination and contrast of material and graphic line. But with it's loss, I don't really like these shoes at all. The final shoes look like low-end PS knock-offs. :-/ I agree with Modelizer. Make the price higher and sell fewer.

TheStreetFashion5xpro said...

this is art...amaaaaaaziiiiiing!

Julia said...

Yes, I agree. The runway version is far superior.

xx

davidikus said...

It's true those shoes don't look the same without the original heel. It makes me wonder what those gorgeous Balenciaga shoes from the last collection will look like once they hit the shops!

http://davidikus.blogspot.com/

http://www.davidranc.com/

http://www.MyStyleAdvice.wordpress.com said...

yes please!