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+Muireann Carey-Campbell
- Blogger. Talker. Fabulous hair haver. Wearer of high heels. Appreciator of style. Laugh maker. Holly Golightly meets Beat Street.
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Posts Tagged ‘shoes’
Weekend Inspiration
Saturday, February 2nd, 2013
As you know, I’m a fiend for anything to do with high heels. Last night, this little gem dropped in my inbox – no press release, no explanation, just a link to this artist, Mark Schwartz’s website, High Heeled Art. For whatever reason, I was drawn to it, so I thought I’d share. If you want to look at some pretty art, all about shoes this weekend, go take a peek.
You’re welcome!
Tags: art, footwear, High heels, Mark Schwartz, shoes
Posted in fashion | 1 Comment »
Shoe Porn – Chelsea Paris
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
Last week I was invited down to Claridge’s Hotel to view the new Chelsea Paris shoe collection. Side note: why have I never been to Claridge’s before? Furthermore, why do I not LIVE there? There’s a sofa in the lift! Anyhoo, back to the shoes – Chelsea Paris founder and designer Theresa Ebagua always had a love of shoes, particularly vintage ones, but when she couldn’t find ones she liked in regular stores, she thought what pretty much all of us have thought at one time or another, but never actually had the balls to do: why don’t I just make them myself?!
Shoemaking classes in Milan followed and the rest, as they say, is history. She’s lived a well-traveled life and that influence comes across in the shoes. The vibrant colours and subtle intricate details will light up the feet of any shoe lover. Check out some of the lovliness on show last week.
Tags: Chelsea Paris, shoe porn, shoes
Posted in fashion | No Comments »
How to Walk in High Heels
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
Due to my love of high heels, I’m often asked how I mastered walking atop such stylish stilts. I thought it was about time I put together a little guide, so I made that the topic of my latest Style Tribe post for Glamour.com. Head on over there and check it out.
Do you have any tips you would add?
Tags: Glamour Magazine, High heels, Jimmy Choos, shoes, Style Tribe
Posted in fashion | 8 Comments »
Upper Street Shoes: The Bangs Ballet Flat
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
When you’re as crazy about footwear as I am and someone asks you if you’d like to design your own shoes, it’s hard not to jump up and down on your bed like an excited teenager. At the end of last year, that’s exactly what happened to me when Upper Street Shoes invited me to do just that. Naturally, everyone imagined I’d go for a killer pair of heels, but I decided, with all the running I’m doing, what I really need for my rest days is a sensible pair of ballet flats (what is happening to me?!). Wanna see ‘em? Check them out below.
Tags: Ballet Flats, Custom Made Shoes, shoes, Upper Street Shoes
Posted in fashion | 8 Comments »
Javari Meets Bangs: Shoe the Keyhole
Thursday, October 6th, 2011
Recently, the lovely folks over at Javari.co.uk caught up with me to chat about shoes – and we know, if there’s one topic I can wax lyrical about, it’s footwear. This is part of a series of interviews Javari did called Shoe the Keyhole, where they talk to cool people like myself about shoe collections, favourite shoes, what we like about shoes etc. We had a lot of fun making the vid. I hope you enjoy it.
Tags: Javari, Shoe the Keyhole, shoes
Posted in fashion | 1 Comment »
Shoe Porn
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
It’s no secret that I love shoes, but when I saw these on the Kurt Geiger website, I knew they had to be mine. And what Bangs wants, Bangs gets.
There are no words for how much I love these shoes. I don’t even want to wear them. I just want to admire them, all day, every day. They are so ridiculously sexy, I can barely stand it.
So take a moment, make yourself a cuppa, have a break and just stare at these shoes for a couple of minutes. Don’t you just feel better? Or aroused? Or something?
*sigh*
Yeah, me too.
Tags: shoe porn, shoes
Posted in fashion | 16 Comments »
Summer Shoe Hell
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Ahh May, welcome! Traditionally, this is the time of year where I kick my wardrobe change over into overdrive and begin my quest for light, fun spring/summer wear. This past weekend, I decided to shop (read: surf the interweb) for shoes. As is well documented on this site, I have a deep, intense love of footwear, so the act of shopping for it is usually joyous. This time though, it was a joyless, soul-destroying experience. What in the world are shoemakers doing?
Take for example those shoes above. Clogs. Every single shop has a variation of these hideous things. I don’t care how much to try to convince me clogs are a good idea, I cannot and will not partake in this sham of a mockery of a mockery of a sham. Unless you’re Dutch, get your shit together and wear proper shoes.
Then there’s these. What the hell are these? I came out bashing the shoe/boot hybrid as soon as they came on the scene. They make no kind of sense. Can I wear them when it’s hot? Well sure I can, if I want to show off my big toe and have sweaty ankles. Can I wear them when it’s cold? Most definitely, if I want to have my frostbitten toes surgically removed at the end of the day. Which genius came up with these things?
I want no part of it. Where do you wear these? And with what?! It’s entirely too confusing.
Look at these things. Well, let’s see; I’m not in the cast of Hair and have no plans to go to a 70s themed fancy dress party anytime soon, so why would I buy these?
Hideous, awful, outrageously bad. Even the most unfashionable people I know wouldn’t wear these (except for the fact that I obviously don’t know anyone unfashionable, but whatever).
By the time I scrolled down and saw these, I’d figured out that whoever designed them has an intense drug problem. Imagine all the processes these had to go through to get made and make it onto the mass market. Some idiot took the time to design these, choose that delightful combination of colours to go together, add laces, a rubber toe and heel – this was all put on paper and presumably run past a manager or two. Then they went into production and representatives showed these to shoe stores and those shoe stores looked at this and said….’Yes, our customers who ride on the special bus will love these.’
OK, let’s talk through exactly what is going on here: that’s cork on the sole, followed by an inexplicable layer of beige, leading into an orange wedge, topped off by grey nubuck, laces, buckles and what looks to be a denim or suede accent trim. That, my friend, is a lot. That shoe looks like it weighs at least 300lbs. How am I meant to put one foot in front of the other if I can’t even lift them?
Whenever you see models take a tumble on the catwalk, they’re always wearing something like this. Let this be a warning ladies.
So when this is the calibre of shoe I see on offer at any given shoe store, is it any wonder I’m seriously worried about having to roam the streets barefoot this summer? What am I looking for? Simplicity. Every summer I like to have at least one pair of flat sandals, perhaps a pair of wedges and one pair of open-toed shoes, maybe with a slingback. I’m not asking too much!
Tags: bad footwear, shoes, shopping
Posted in fashion | 13 Comments »
There’s Nothing Like New Choos
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
I may have mentioned this before, I’m not sure, but I kinda love shoes. That face you see above? That’s the excited face I get when I get a special delivery of some super sexy footwear. But not just any shoes, oh no. When you get Jimmy Choos, it’s all you can do to keep your head from exploding.
You unwrap them with love. You cradle them in your arms.
And it’s only right that you greet them properly (hey, they’ve been locked up in a box for a few days and manhandled by postal workers – a warm reception is the least I can provide).
BAM!!!
I love them. A little bit. Okay, a lot. I may have drooled on them. I will neither confirm nor deny those reports. You want to lick them, don’t you? Don’t worry, it’s an overwhelming urge – it happens to everyone. You want to stroke them too, don’t you? Yeah, I know.
Oh Jimmy, I feel like this is a love that will never die.
Tags: Jimmy Choo, love affairs, shoes
Posted in fashion | 27 Comments »
It’s For Charity
Monday, March 29th, 2010
There’s a new trend recently with charities. It usually runs along the lines of someone saying they’re gonna climb [insert foreign mammoth mountain range of choice here] and are going to raise all this money to help [insert tug-n-heartstrings-charity of your choice here]. Sounds good, right? WRONG!
Dig a little deeper and you’ll see that usually about half the money they raise goes to pay for their airfare and expenses to get there in the first place. And frankly, I think that’s a bit of a piss take. Basically, you’re asking people to pay for your holiday.
The same thing annoys me about these charities like Comic Relief. They waste all these thousands of pounds sending celebrities and camera crews over to third world countries to show us how bad the situation is. Firstly, I’m not an idiot, I can tell the random celeb du jour doesn’t give two craps about the charity and is just waiting for their pay cheque. Secondly, wouldn’t it make more sense to donate the money it cost to get that huge team out there, directly to the charity?
These people asking you to sponsor them to go wander the wilds of Africa or whatever have forgotten what charity’s all about. The main point of charity is that it’s not about you! Let’s face it, sure these people may be doing something physically exerting to get that sponsor money, but I’d like to bet they’re living it up on their downtime while they’re on the mission. Odds are, if you question them, the place they’re doing their sponsored climb just happens to be somewhere they’ve always wanted to go. Well, how convenient that they got to use the rouse of ‘doing it for a good cause’ to get them out there.
If these people truly gave a crap about saving the children/the whales/the homeless or whatever their charity of choice is, they’d do a sponsored walk around their local park, not get caught up in their phoney grand gestures when really all it serves to do is make their dream come true first and eventually filter a little money down to the charity.
But hey, if that’s the way things are going, I’d like to inform you all that I will be doing a highly intensive and strenuous sponsored walk around Milan. Along the way, I will be buying multiple pairs of shoes. All the proceeds from your kind donations will go to the Bangs Shoe Fund, a very worthy cause. You can rest assured that all the proceeds raised from this gruelling walk around one of the world’s most beautiful cities, will keep my feet in designer shoes hopefully until at least 2012, at which time, I will undertake another sponsored walk, around Paris.
I’m accepting donations in the form of cash, cheques, credit cards, hell, you can even just give me shoes so I don’t even have to do the walk. Remember, it’s all for charity!
Tags: charity, shoes, silly things people do
Posted in life | 15 Comments »
Clogged Up
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
I saw a newspaper headline the other day that said ‘How to Wear Clogs’ – surely the answer to that would be to not wear them at all? But alas no, apparently clogs are making a comeback now. *sighs* *rubs temples* Is there nothing, NOTHING that we won’t attempt to ‘bring back.’ When clogs went away, they were just ready to give it all up. The retired, maybe bought a nice little condo down in Florida and have been happily playing bingo for years now. Leave clogs alone! Let them live their life!
Alright, fine, since you’re going to back me into a corner, I’ll admit, I did once own a pair of clogs. It was during my hippy/grunge phase in the early 90s. They were red suede. They were acceptable for two reasons; a) because it was the early 90s b) because I was 12. But if you were to see me trying to pull off those clodhoppers today, I would turn my cheek to you myself, making it easier for you to bitch slap me.
But you may be surprised to hear, I’m not actually completely opposed to the return of clogs. Why? Because I see them as a stepping stone…for people who wear Crocs. Perhaps this is one way we can help those idiots to transition into real footwear. It’s all about baby steps. Clogs are kind of a more professional, grown up looking Croc. This could be just the tool we need to help them progress. From Crocs to Clogs, Clogs to a comfortable flat, comfortable flat to a kitten heel, kitten heel to a court shoe, court to a [ring the alarm] STILETTO. See? There’s a method to my madness people.
While yes, Clogs are certainly not very attractive, they are indeed a step up from Crocs. I could handle seeing some of our more fashion-imparied amigos clomping around in Clogs for a while if it meant them not seeing a huge piece of rubber swiss cheese as appropriate footwear. Sometimes we have to endure a little bad to get to the good.
We have a couple of months to prepare ourselves. It’ll be spring before these bad boys burst onto the scene. Let’s all brace ourselves for the loud sound of wood, clogs falling off (stockings are terribly slippy on the wooden insoles of a clog. Accidents can and will happen) and random beatings by clog. But we can get through this together. Remember, if the end result is the end of Crocs, the Clog is a movement we must all get behind.
Tags: bad footwear, crocs, shoes
Posted in fashion | 18 Comments »