Look, the simple and versatile pump by the name of Nanico, which usually sells for $235 or more, is on 40% sale at both Zappos and Shoes.com, at a savings of 94 American dollars! (Francesca frets that the American dollar is not worth as much as it used to be, but such is life. We who earn our income in dollars and spend much of it abroad console ourselves with the beautiful, well-made shoes.)
Happy weekend!
xoxo,
Francesca
Can you even imagine how unspeakably fab you would be in these robin egg glories? They are, of course, by il Maestro Manolo, from his new Pre-Fall collection.
It is to sigh.
Do you know what you really need to show these off to their best advantage, though?
A yacht.
Growing up we had the sweetest little yacht in the whole wide world named The Night Owl and it still wounds my patent leather soul that I never had the opportunity to wear any of my fabby shoes acquired later in life aboard The Night Owl.
I feel that many of my shoes really need a yacht to truly be shown to their best, and I suspect that when I die and if by some clerical error through the pearly gates (how Chanel!) my celestial residence won’t be a bunch of martyrs in cotton voile maxi-dresses perched on clouds, serenely plucking upon the ten-stringèd lyre. Instead, I will repent from my previous evil ways –namely scuttling about on deck like a sartorially challenged crab in clear pink glitter jelly sandals and sneaker-type monstrosities with neon corkscrew laces and a good deal more layers of rolled-down socks than the weather and confines of good taste required.
Francesca loves the wide-width Stewies! Especially when they are 20% off!
Stitchup” in Charcoal (for kicking some corporate posteriors) or Scarlet (for kicking any posteriors).
Happy shopping and happy weekend!
xoxo,
Francesca
Oh slingbacks. You are so pretty, but so evil…it’s like me in shoe form. You have thin soles, I have no soul at all. We’re like twins.
Yet I have avoided you, as many of us with the Flinstonian feets do, because it’s just so hard to get you to fit right. Oh how I’ve suffered with slingbacks. If they’re wide enough in the toe box, they’re too big in the back and if they’re juuust snug enough to ensure your foot won’t slip down in front, the ding dong (as Style Spy would say) back won’t get up over your heel without a threat, a bribe and three broken nails.
It’s a heartache to be certain.
But Plumcake is here to save you! Last week, inspired by a beautiful pair of Saks Fifth Avenue-brand croc print peep-toe slingbacks –very much an homage to the beloved Louboutin design shown below– I had what can only be described as a remarkably rare fit of brilliance.
These little lovelies fit beautifully in the toe and I knew if I could just get the sling back in appropriate position they would be mine forever. First I tried tugging them up with my finger in the band. No joy. Then I tried coaching them up with my nails. No luck there either, and I broke two nails. All the while a velvet ribbon I was wearing to keep my hair back kept flopping into my eyes. Out of frustration I tore off the stupid ribbon and then a beautiful leather-soled light bulb popped on above my head.
I put the shoe on as far as I could, looped the ribbon around the pesky elastic so I was holding the back of the shoe in a sort of sling, and just pulled up. It slid onto my foot bee-yoo-tifully and the slingbacks, ribbon and I have lived happily ever after.
The End.
Shoes to match the wine . . .
Shoes to match the matzah . . .
Shoes to match the shades of gray your Uncle Hymie turns when he realizes how much he has to fork over in exchange for the Afikoman . . .
Beautiful sandals to wear while snapping one’s fingers and saying “slavery in Egypt was not superfantastic!”
While Plumcake and I have disagreed one more than one ocassion, when it comes to flip flops we are of one mind. Just, no. Practical, aesthetc, and auditory reasons abound for our mutual aversion. I know that some of our readers will not change their flip flop loving ways, and hey! it’s a free country. Chances are it’s a free country where you are, too. We’re not your mommies or the Fashion Police. We will not come and try to take your flip flops from your feet, cold and dead or otherwise.
What I would like to do today, though, is offer up some more superfantastic alternatives. After all, warmer weather demands more open footwear. Nobody expects you to wear snowboots in August (unless you’re in a part of the world where it would be the most practical thing to do; say a nice long stay in Antarctica), but there are plenty of pretty sandals that aren’t flip flops. Let’s take a look at some of them, shall we?
Okay, so technically I’m supposed to be dead, but if we’ve learned anything from “Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade” it’s that the Holy Grail can do miraculous things. Well friends, HERE is the Holy Grail.
It’s the instantly iconic Prada Sfumata Mary Jane over which everyone (including The Manolo and your humble pal Plumcake) fawned. Style Spy declared them the shoe of the season and they were both very difficult and very expensive to acquire. In fact when I saw that the size 41’s (although I’d say anyone from an American 10 to a small 12 could probably wear them) were on sale for FIFTY PERCENT OFF I started pulling out my hair with one hand and frantically emailing Style Spy –who already owns them– with the other. Do I buy them for myself or do I let my readers in on the secret?
See, technically I already have these. Yes, they’re the pumps, but when it comes right down to it, even I do not need two pairs of Prada nero/grigio sfumata shoes. So go, shop. They’re still not cheap, but they ARE a bargain.
You won’t regret it.
If those last Weitzman’s didn’t do much for you –and they did not for me– check out these more conservative kicks, available on mega-super sale, more than 60% off! Don’t fret about the 4 1/2″ heel, they’ve got a platform AND I can tell you from personal experience that a 5″ Stewie is infinitely more wearable than heel half that height in pretty much any other designer.
Francesca just loves this superfantastic, sexy image by the Degas, called Woman Drying Herself, perhaps because the woman is shaped like Francesca! (Only Francesca is a little bigger in the tummy and upper arms.)
(You can purchase this image to hang in your bathroom or bedroom here!)
Francesca likes to think that this woman is getting ready for a Big Event, and is about to put on her Tadashi evening gown
and Stuart Weitzman shoes she bought on sale yesterday when she saw them on Manolo for the Big girl
and will flirt all night with her boyfriend, who will be more than happy when they come home and she takes the dress and the shoes off again.
And Francesca will remember to put on some of her Euphoria!
Oh, I mean, the girl in the sketch.
Oh, Francesca can hardly stand it. She is going to explode from sheer bliss.
Stuart Weitzman’s “Girly” is 30% off at Zappos. That is the savings of 135 American dollars!
Good God, they are covered in Swarovski crystals. And they are available in wide widths. Francesca feels so light-headed, she might faint before she can order them.
How sexy will you feel wearing these shoes, hm?
