Higher and Higher....Heels of Steel

The debate continues in this excellent feature by Hadley Freeman in todays G2 in The Guardian : http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/11/fashion-high-heels

I made two programmes which explored high heels and barely scratched the surface. Apart from the history of the high heel, and the history of the design of the high heel, this is about politics, sex and spirituality- no? Yes.

I will write more about this when I have some time.

Marloes ten Bohmer

I interviewed this gifted and original designer for one of The Shoe Show programmes. She has patented some of the new technologies and materials she uses to make her extraordinary and beautiful couture shoes, and is currently part of the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year show at the Design Museum, showing now until June 14.

For more information visit http://www.designsoftheyear.com/

Marloes's website at http://marloestenbhomer.squarespace.com/

The Shoe Show - A Slight Return

The Shoe Show was aired on Resonance FM from January to April 2006. Each show was 15 minutes long and there were 13 episodes in the series. I researched, wrote, interviewed, presented and produced all of it, including writing and performing the theme tune. The editing and engineering was done mainly by the amazingly talented Beepoid Poolord.

I had a life-changing adventure making this show and will always be grateful to Resonance for commissioning me to make it, and allowing me complete creative control. I made the shows myself, exactly as I wanted them to be,within the constraints of little resources and finance and no experience whatsoever of making programmes for radio.

It was a fabulous opportunity and although the shows were by no means perfect, and if I was making them now would probably be different - wonderful thing hindsight, I am still pleased with them. I was self-indulgent at times but having always worked with other people on creative projects I decided to let myself go a bit mad when I wanted to.

I was half way through gathering material for another series and had lots of interviews recorded and another 13 programmes all planned but life took over and everything went on hold and then came to a fairly final halt. My mum died in 2006 and then I fell pregnant so I was unable to do all the final tidying up and say all the thank-yous I needed to say from the first series. I was then unable to make the second series but maybe it will become a book...who knows.

My love of all things shoe continues but where I had been developing a slight high heel habit I have now gone back to flat shoes. Pushing a buggy is great when I'm wearing MBTs but not so great in clog-heeled platform boots!

I now have collection of very small shoes and boots belonging to my son. I am being very good and not keeping all of them but a couple of pairs will be kept for posterity, and sheer cuteness!

The photo is of Sam's first pair of summer shoes, Doodles from Clarks.

More Shoes!

Check out New Look (if you are a shoe-a-holic you will already have got a cheap 'fix' from their great selection of cheap and cheerful footwear) on the web here: http://www.newlook.co.uk/moreshoes/moreshoes.html

I am very impressed with the range, value and quality of their footwear- they seem to have something f0r eveyone this season-

I've just bought 2 pairs of high-heeled lace ups (one with a brogue style and a pair of patent black pointy oxfords- yum!) at £20 a pop- AND I can actually walk in them and I am not great at wearing high heels for any length of time...these get my vote.

PopstarFeets!

I would just like to recommend this marvellous London-based web resource for all those people out there who have a hankering to know what their indie-music-type bands are wearing on their 'plates' whilst treading the golden cobbles or gig-type-venues of our beloved 'Smoke.

Although having said that the picture above- although sporting plenty of beer and fags (oh yes, so rock n roll...) is of one of my shoes. I can no longer claim any band membership or musical type rocknrollness- unless you count the theme tune I recorded for the show...nah...

Cor luv a Duck

Please see Links section for gorgeous Rock n Roll shoe-bee-doos...

Carole Hodgson's Charles Jourdan Shoes

Check out these beautiful, exquisitely designed Charles Jourdan shoes which belong to the artist Carole Hodgson. They are divine, and too small for me to wear ( probably a very good thing or the temptation to wear them would too much to bear!). Carole says she remembers buying them in the '60s in Bond Street.

For further info

rmation about Char

les Jourdan and Car

ole Hodgson please the links on the RHS of the page. Thanks Carole!

Nothing Short Ov a Total (Trainer) Love - In

It all started so innocently, a Saturday afternoon in Bristol, idling away around the kitchen table at Tim and Lou's (or 'Hotel Sultana') with a glass of wine and some cheese and biscuits....talk turned to trainers and before we knew it a full-on trainer 'Love-In' developed with trainers from all personages present getting in to it...maaan...

Me and Matt & Lou and Tim

What fine hospitality and what fine shoes!

Cheers me ole luvvers as they sez in Brizzol

TEDS 'N' BOOTS

POPAGANDA: The Fashion & Style of JC de Castelbajac
1 February to 1 May 2006

at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Sadly this show is now finished but check out this jacket made from Converse Allstar Baseball Boots!

Very wacky, ahead of its time, beautifully made and very wearable clothing, footwear and accessories. Not to mention highly influential!

Please see JC de Castelbajac's site here

Let's get this SHOE on the road!

Due to unforeseen circumstances I have had to take a break from all things shoe-related (apart from my own personal day-to-day shoe lustings!) but now I am back.

So much to write about- so much to see - so many shoes to try on, wear, talk about and fall over in!

MBTs UPDATE

If you saw my post on MBTs - I have been waering them almost every day since I got them and I DO think they have made a difference to my posture and the muscles in my legs. I have been doing nothing else fitness or diet-related during this time (I last blogged about MBTs on 5th April- so quite a while ago) and have stuck to my usual regime of lots of walking and lots of croissants, coffee, red wine and chocolate. I am NOT recommending this as a way of getting fit or being healthy but only that the only thing that could have made a difference to the shape and improved (slightly) muscle tone and cellulite must be those shoes.

More to come on this- my friend has got a pair and hers came with a DVD so we are going to watch it next week and see if we are walking correctly whilst wearing them, to maximise the benefits.

More Exciting NEWS - I am not shoe-ing off, honest!

I have just embarked on training for a half marathon (yes- obviously lost the plot a bit there- but it seems like a good idea!) with my good friend and fellow MBT wearer (see elsewhere for a pic of us with a Vivienne Westwood shoe) Mel.

What on earth has this got to do with shoes? Running shoes- currently, mine are Saucony, Smell's are Adidas (correct me if I'm wrong babe). So, as neither of us have ever run a half-marathon before, it is a great opportunity to look at and review running shoes - look at the construction, design, materials etc. BUT, most importantly, whether they do the job thay are made for! We will be running 2-3 times a week so there is mucho running shoe research to do!

Any thoughts on running shoes would be much appreciated.

Programme 13: Its the Last 'Shoe' in the Series....

Broadcasting Tuesday April 25th 2006

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Well, that went quickly! This week I take a look back at the series and also talk about my own shoes, some of which you can see below. The shoe on my foot is one of the LK Bennett silver raw silk kitten-heeled mules I got married in...

Below you can see my trusty old New Rock boots, which lace through a hole in the middle of the metal heel and have survived 2 (yes-1997 and 1998) wet and very muddy Glastonbury festivals! Also below are my wosh trainers with the gold wedge heel, the black and white brothel creepers I got from Shelleys for a fiver but are very stiff and therefore very uncomfortable. In the foreground are my Red or Dead suede shoes that I got in 1990 and wore when I saw the Cocteau Twins play at the Town and Country Club in Kentish Town.

There will be a new series of The Shoe Show in Autumn 2006. The first series will be repeated during the summer (times and days to be confirmed).

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I will be spending the next few months researching, writing, interviewing and gathering information for the next series. I will continue to update the blog regularly so please pop back and visit for news, views, stories and general footwear information and pictures!

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There will be an hour long Shoe Show special on Terry de Havilland on May 10th at 7pm (more details to follow).

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*A BIG THANK YOU!*

to everyone who helped to make The Shoe Show possible and to everyone who featured on the shows. Thanks especially to all at Resonance FM, to Kutsal Bilgin for engineering the first half of the series, special thanks to Poolord for his time, help and expertise, and to James DC for suggesting I make it in the first place (and for his constant vigilance regarding "Levels!")

What a Croc!

I have now received my crocs from the lovely people at Crocshop and they are VERY comfortable, colourful and cool (and YELLOW!). Please see the links scetion for the Crocshop website. I mentioned Crocs on the show a couple of weeks ago- they are starting to appear in shops in the UK now but have been very popular in the US for the last few years. They are made from Croslite, a closed cell resin, which makes them very light and also they can be sterilised so are popular with people working in medicine. The sole is orthotically designed (if you look at the picture above on the right you can see the 'footprint' inside. I would recommend them to anyone who needs something light and supportive to wear on their feet. The first pair I got felt too big, but were actually the right size if you go by the instructions. They are supposed to have a very loose fit, with the sides of your foot and your toes not actually making contact with the shoe- but this felt very odd and when I spoke to Karen at the Crocshop she said lots of people have found the same thing, and actually feel better wearing a smaller size- maybe we just need that bit of restriction over here -we're not so happy to 'hang loose'...?!
Anyway, the smaller size is just right and I am looking forward to getting lost of wear out of them over the Summer.

Check this out! Thanks to Kerra Mitchell (who has been doing work experience at Resonance FM) for this link: http://www.boingboing.net/2006/04/13/shoes_made_out_of_co.html
Shoes made from a computer keyboard!