Years ago I wandered into an eccentric little shoe store in my up-and-coming neighborhood and fell in love with a heel.
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| The Fluevogs that were my obsession and rent money |
Actually I fell in love with a designer, but it was the heels he put on shoes that really made my heart race, and made John Fluevog shoes the first pair of designer heels I splurged on. (I spent my whole bonus check to get these shoes, and didn’t pay any bills).
What makes them so unique? Aside from John’s use of color and cut, often creating a modern take on classic and Victorian styles, it was the fluted heel that took my breath away. Featured on shoes, boots, booties, dressy and casual heels, I would wander the store tracing the curve of the heel in a way that probably bordered on pornographic, and wish all my shoes were as beautiful as the ones Fluevog made.
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| Alice and Olivia |
So you can imagine my surprise when wandering through Nordstrom Salon Shoes when I started seeing fluted heels. At first I thought Fluevog made a deal with big retail and was going commercial, but it didn’t take long to realize that it wasn’t Fluevog I was seeing.
Alice & Olivia, Prada, Miu Miu and more. Fall of 2012 is the season of the fluted heel, and suddenly everyone is trying to make their shoes look like my (and a million other people’s) Fluevogs.
I’m sure this is all some kind of bizarre coincidence, and it’s not the Fall of Fluevog Copying, and instead some kind of bizarre attempt at a throwback to Victorian era heels, or an effort to keep heels interesting since in the last year we’ve already made them fat, skinny, tall, short, curved and removed them altogether. But it still looks an awful lot like my dear Fluevogs. So much so that my sister held up the first pair she saw and said, “Look. Someone’s ripping off John Fluevog. Now everyone is going to have your heel.”
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| Love these Prada |
Damn you all to hell.
I think my only other answer is to buy more Fluevogs (since I can't afford Prada) and stay with the origional. Because long after they’ve moved onto the next trend, John Fluevog will still be there making his quirky, curvy, sexy shoes with the fluted heels, and my beloved booties will once again be unique.
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