When Jimmy Choo’s exclusive collaboration with H&M lands in stores on 14th November, a glimpse of the brand’s glamorous world will be available to all. Not only will Jimmy Choo be providing the perfect shoes for the party season at H&M, it will also be offering the clothes and accessories to match, as well as dressing men from head to toe. The collection features details such as crystals, studs and animal prints that make Jimmy Choo such a pioneer in the world of accessories. Arriving in around 200 stores worldwide, soon all will be able to experience the passion for Jimmy Choo at H&M.

"The Jimmy Choo collection for H&M is full of fun, one-off items with an accessible and glamorous identity made with stylish materials, emphasised with colour and embellishment. I wanted to create pieces that would reach a cool and young customer with a fashionable and independent sense of spirit in this one-off collaboration." Tamara Mellon, Founder and President, Jimmy Choo.

"This Autumn Jimmy Choo brings vitality and sexy glamour to H&M. I love the really high strappy sandals with lots of decoration and attitude, matched with clean-cut, 80s-inspired clothes. Designer Tamara Mellon always shows her amazing shoes with equally amazing clothes, and we wanted to offer our customers a complete collection - including men's shoes and clothes too. I think this collection suits anyone with a flair for fashion and high heels." Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor at H&M.

It’s a shoe-lovers dream. For H&M, Jimmy Choo will be providing every style you need to see you through the season. From high heels and thigh-high boots to gladiator flats and ballet pumps, all the Jimmy Choo classic designs are there, and Jimmy Choo pulls out all the stops to provide decoration for the feet.There are crystal embellishments, studs, animal prints such as zebra, and accent colours of red and blue to give the shoes that real power. While glamour is the key to the skyscraper high heels, Jimmy Choo is also bringing a cropped Cuban-heel boot to H&M as well as the essential ballet pump to make it a truly complete collection.

Cult status - Manolo Blahnik

Manolo Blahnik... doesn't that name give you flash backs of that Sex and the City episode when Carrie was in the Vogue fashion closet and comes across a pair of supposedly mythical Mary Janes. Even if they didn't fit her properly, she managed to squeeze her foot in them anyway. That is the appeal that "Manolo's" have had on the women of the world. You want them no matter what.

A friend of mine said to me once that she didn't see what was supposedly so great about Manolo's. And yes, she had seen them in person, their design, to her was not very striking or beautiful. But as I explained to her, with Manolo's it is also about the fit and not just what they look like. After all women don't go spending hundreds of dollars on a pair of Manolo's just because it looks pretty (unless you have millions of dollars spare of course, then you can buy anything that looks pretty). It is the design of the shoe that has women going gaga over Manolo Blahnik's.

Born in Santa Cruz de la Palma in the Canary Islands in 1942, Manolo Blahnik was destined for big things. In 1965 after studying architecture and literature at the University of Geneva, Blahnik moved to Paris to study art. A few years later he's working at fashion boutiques and part of the thriving art scene of London. He hit New York in 1971, where he met with the legendary Diana Vreeland, who was then the editor of US Vogue. After looking at his drawings she encourages him to "go make shoes".

Fast forward a few years and Blahnik buys out Zapata, a boutique in Chelsea (England) that stocked his designs. By the late seventies, he broke into the US by creating a collection in Bloomingdales and opens up his first store the following year on New York's Madison Avenue. A partnership with George Malkemus, then a young copywriter in Bergdorf Goodman's marketing department helped Manolo's take off in the US.

Over the next few decades, he collaborates with many fashion designers from Calvin Klein, Isaac Mizrahi, John Galliano, Perry Ellis, Bill Blass, Caroline Herrera, Oscar de la Renta and Zac Posen. With his successful formula of designing shoes with a "good solid look that will wear forever" his already long list of clientele continues to grow, with everyone from the rich and famous to royalty wearing Manolo's. It comes as no big surprise, after all this is a man that knows his shoes - he has been studying it for the past 30 years.

"I know how to cut and still make it so that it stays on the foot. And the secret of toe cleavage, a very important part of the sexuality of the shoe. You must only show the first two cracks. And the heel. Even if it's twelve centimetres high it still has to feel secure and that's a question of balance. That's why I carve each heel personally myself 'on the machine and then by hand with a chisel and file, until it's exactly right.'

With that kind of dedication, it is no wonder that he has women (and some men) going crazy over the newest and rarest pair of Manolo's.

The most expensive Louboutins in the world.

L’Wren has teamed up with shoe designer to the stars, Christian Louboutin, to create a limited collection of timeless sandals and pumps. Amongst this collection is “The Crocodile Pump” for $4,600. Christian’s bold approach to shoe design combined with L’Wren’s perfectionist vision for classic couture has created the perfect accessory for the little black dress. This distinctive pump highlights the designers leg lengthening style by adding a 100mm heel. The exceptional crocodile skin’s smooth finish in black is enhanced by Christian Louboutin’s red leather soles. Crocodile is all the rage these days so too.

Cobra Shields $120,000 Sandals

How justifiable is the idea of using a poisonous cobra as a safety guard of luxurious sandals? London’s retailer Harrods has practiced this ‘wise’ idea for the safety of its shoe outlet of which the most elite pair is $120,000 (62,000 pound) sandals.

In today's age of motion and touch sensors and every other kind of high-tech gadget we've got for security of precious goods, Harrods in London recently took a unique step to protect a pair of very expensive shoes: they hired a poisonous cobra to stand guard Rene Caovilla’s beautiful pair of thongs festooned with ruby- sapphire- and diamond-encrusted was under the custody of the live Egyptian cobra during the launch of the shoe collection on 10 September.

Obviously this was a publicity stunt, not a real security effort, but I say good for them. That's pretty clever, and for all intents and purposes it worked. The cobra has since returned to its owner and the shoes are, I'm sure, under a more traditional lock and key type security system. Curious what kind of shoes warranted such a show? A pair of red sandals by Rene Caovilla that are encrusted with rubies, sapphires, and diamonds and valued at about $120,000.
Security experts may counter it but hungry photographers would not skip this photogenic moment. Harrods spokeswoman confessed that the cobra was deputed especially for unveiling of the shoe collection and has been returned to its proprietor.

McQueens snake shoes - uhh!

Alexander McQueen’s Spring 2010 runway collection was a statement about the future of our world. More specifically, the meltdown of our world due to global warming. The fantasy heels on the runway looked like they were out of this world - or at least this land. They were super high and featured interestingly curved booties designed for the the animalistic and bold. Im sorry but i think these are hideous. How many words are there for 'ugly'!!

Biography of legendary shoe designer Roger Vivier

Born in Paris France, Vivier studied sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux in Paris until an invitation from friends to design a collection of shoes for their shoe factory, interrupted his studies. In 1936 he worked for other shoe makers before opening his own house the following year. Vivier designed for many major shoes manufacturers, Pinet, Bally, Delvain, Rayne and Turned in the UK. Vivier agreed to work exclusively for Delvain in 1938 but the completion of his contract as prevented by his mobilisation in 1939.

One year later he was out of the army and off to New York where he worked with Delvain until 1941. In 1942, having studied MIllinerary, Vivier opened a shop with Suzanne Remy, a well respected Parisian milliner. In 1945 back with Delvain he produced several collections one of which included crystal shoes. He returned to Paris and worked freelance until Dior opened a shoe department in his salon in 1953 and appointed vivier as designer. During his stay, Vivier made some o the most influential shoes of the period.

He translated 18th Century mules into evening shoes, court shoes and day boots. In 1957 he created a stacked heel, chisel toed shoes which become very populr. He made circular diamonte heels, wedge shoes and bread embroidered shoes. In the 1960’s he designed African sandals and a shoe with a mother of pearl and silver buckle. A nonconformist master craftsman who rarely faltered, Vivier was noted for his skill in positioning and balancing innovative heels and for his imaginative use of texture. He reopened his business in 1963 in Paris and continued to produce two collections a year until his death in 1998. .

What is your shopping footprint??

A shopping footprint is made up of the ways people shopping affects the environment. Shopping footprints include:
* the raw materials goods are made from
* how the goods are manufactured
* how goods are transported
* where goods are sold
* how the goods are packaged for sale

The shopping industry is made up if everything involved in the making and sale of the
things people buy. Farmers, manufacturers, shop owners ad ordinary people all benefit from the shopping industry. But shopping comes at a cost to the environment.


Rethink
Instead of throwing away old shoes & bags, give it to charity so that it can be used by someone else.
Altering clothes to fit better is better for the environment than buying new ones
Reuse and recycle and reduce your shopping footprint
Outdoor shopping malls use less lighting, heating and cooling than indoor malls so they have lighter environmental footprint.
Shopping online provides a good alternative to driving to shops
Every cent that someone spends in a retail store, increases the size of their shopping footprint.
Leaving extra packaging behind in the shop encourages manufacturing to use less packaging in the future.

How to work out your shopping footprint
On a piece of paper make a note of how regularly (never, sometimes, often) you:
travel to the shops in a car
go shopping without knowing exactly what you plan to buy
buy clothes and wear them only for one season
buy products because they are cheapest, without thinking about how long they might last
put packaging straight into the garbage without cutting out the bits that can be recycled.

If you’re answers are mostly never, you have a light shopping footprint
If you’re answers are mostly sometimes, means your footprints are average
Often you are trading heavily on the environment and leaving a deep footprint