Perhaps not THE most comfortable shoes in the history of hoof-covers (as my friend Style Spy would say) but historically significant nonetheless. Designer Vivienne Westwood, former proprietress of the famed London SEX boutique and absolute punk icon, released her “Prostitute Sex Shoe” sometime around late 1974 I believe and these, rendered in rubber, are the current iteration.
Don’t you just love her all dolled up in what is almost definitely head-to-toe 1980’s Aquascutum a la Maggie Thatch? Alternatively, don’t you ever wonder if she and Vogue creative director Grace Coddington give each other the stinkeye at shows, each one vying to be the most terrifying British PoMo Elizabeth I impersonator in fashion?
Coddy’s got the hairline, but Viv wins on style.
Rubber shoes = hot, sweaty feet
Comment by sasha — September 11, 2009 @ 12:53 pm
okay that’s settled. As of now, whenever someone makes a doofy obvious statement their comment gets the ORLY owl.
Comment by Plumcake — September 11, 2009 @ 1:25 pm
Who’s cooler than Viv? Nobody, that’s who. If you took all the coolness I’ve ever achieved and rolled it up into a gooey ball of coolitude, it would fit into the toe of Vivienne Westwood’s sock. Vivat Regina, indeed.
Comment by Style Spy — September 11, 2009 @ 1:45 pm
Oh, Plumcake. How do I love thee?
Comment by teteatete — September 11, 2009 @ 2:07 pm
This line is the bestie: “each one vying to be the most terrifying British PoMo Elizabeth I impersonator in fashion?”
You rule. As does Vivienne.
Comment by Ruby — September 11, 2009 @ 2:08 pm
For some reason my brain keeps recasting that as “Protestant Sex Shoe,” which is disturbing me deeply.
Comment by daisyj — September 11, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
DaisyJ. The Protestant Sex Shoe is the same shoe, except under the covers and with the lights off, precisely from 8:20 to 8:27 p.m. on the third Thursday of each month.
Comment by Plumcake — September 11, 2009 @ 2:36 pm
Plumcake, that last statement makes me so glad to be Catholic, even if it isn’t as cool!
Comment by Catherine — September 14, 2009 @ 10:14 am
Fabulous post, I love those shoes and find my pair very comfortable. My flat shoes were hurting me on the way back from the shop on Conduitt where I’d bought them so I stopped and changed into the Westwoods and negotiated very comfortably all the way through the busy underground in them.
Dame Viv wins hands down in all things Elizabethan. Basing her corsets on the Elizabeth Tudor effigy corset, re-creating the Hardwick Hall portrait dress, the fabulous ruffs, the cut and slash, the T-shirts with a punked out Elizabeth I on them and her own frequently fab bright red curls.
Oh, and I almost forgot… she’s issued a new range emblazoned with the Tudor rose.
Comment by AlwaysTheSame — September 14, 2009 @ 12:54 pm