These are the Cezannes by Pour la Victoire, a little shoe house I like very much because they make the most comfortable heels I’ve ever owned, and I would buy these in a heartbeat EXCEPT these $130 shoes:
look juuuust a bit more like these $1300 shoes than I find strictly seemly:
(the Dior Anniversary pumps, perched atop Stella, my Cadillac)
Or am I only seeing things?
I am shocked and appalled.
Comment by Style Spy — July 29, 2009 @ 9:03 am
Hmm. You know, if they had only three points of similarity– say, the color, ankle strap and front bows, and not the pleating detail or loops on the back– I might have been able to overlook it. But five for five? Close your notebooks and put your pencils down, class, someone’s been cheating.
Comment by daisyj — July 29, 2009 @ 1:49 pm
Cute, but these are the 3rd pair of flats with an ankle strap you’ve featured… I’ve always thought that women with a chunkier leg (e.g. me) do not look flattering in a shoe with an ankle strap. I feel they make my legs look even heavier. Thoughts?
Comment by Jen — July 29, 2009 @ 3:22 pm
Jen, I think that only applies to chunky ankles. Otherwise, ankle straps are great for polishing up a flat.
And can I just say, Stella is one sexy beast?
Comment by emmme — July 29, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
Yes, of course the design is ripped off, but I always talk myself in circles about these kinds of things and then I get flamed into oblivion because people think I am defending knockoffs. I can’t help it, though because I find the actual market dynamics hard to figure out. I mean, the major argument is that designers deserve to reap the rewards of their intellectual property. Yes, I agree, 100 percent. But here’s what screws me up: I would consider paying $1000 for the first shoe if it were Doir’s original design, but I wouldn’t pay $130 for the high-heeled, original version, pretty though it is, because I simply do not wear heels over 2 inches anymore. Period. And I never wear ankle straps.
So the design is an absolute rip-off, but the shoes are very different functionally, at least for me. If Dior had wanted dollars from me, they would be making both of these shoes, not just the platform, wouldn’t they? So what practical difference does it make to Dior, then, if I buy a flat they’re not making any way? This would all be a lot easier if PLV could simply pay Dior a license fee or something to apply the design to a different shoe.
Comment by Lisa — July 29, 2009 @ 10:11 pm
Actually, I can’t judge as I am currently planning how to drive to Austin pillage your shoe closet and fit it all in a Miata… Just because I’m a fair-minded gal, if all your shoes suddenly vanish in the dead of a night at which you’re zonked out of your brain and at a where that is else, feel free to drive up and down the streets of Houston. Oh shoot, I just realized my dinky little feet wouldn’t fit, curses, foiled again!
Comment by megaera — July 30, 2009 @ 4:51 am
Total ripoff… but, more importantly (at least to me) could we have a full view of sexy Miss Stella? Minus the license plate, of course!
Comment by Marty52 — July 30, 2009 @ 12:18 pm