Frugal Friday

I wish...

Gucci, $1195

Try this...

Ivanka Trump, $96.90

Or this...

Aldo, was $100, sale $48.99

EWP Gift Guide 2011: Tory Burch Flats

Give the gift of style and comfort with my very favoritest flat around - the Tory Burch "Reva" ballerina flat

Tory Burch, $195

Available in more colors

Manolo Blahnik Swan Pump

Lovely. I would take a white pair thank you very much.

By the way, I really hate to do this but I need a little help with a grad school project.
IF and only IF you want to do this, fill out a survey about Twitter here (you have to be on Twitter to fill it out). It's only 12 questions...

Either way, have a super happy Thanksgiving with lots of pie!

Boot love

I bought these Steven by Steve Madden boots yesterday even though they are kind of boring because the weather is changing and I really need a pair of flat black boots stat:
But it gave me a bit of boot fever and now I have my eye on some ridiculously expensive gorgeous boots.
Vera Wang Lavender:Burberry (kinda ridiculous, but I love them):Gucci:
Marc by Marc Jacobs:

And of course, Christian Louboutin:
Louboutin:
Louboutin:

Kurt Geiger Shoes

So I wanted to do a post on some Kurt Geiger shoes I found tres adorable, but then blogger freaked out on me and ruined the whole post. Now everything's out of wack and I'm annoyed. so here's just a really badly constructed post which may or may not have the links and pics mixed up.  You can blame blogger.

Miss KG, was £75.00, sale £35.00

KG Kurt Geiger, was £90, sale £59

Carvela Kurt Geiger, was £100, sale £59

Kurt Geiger London, was £290, sale £85

KG Kurt Geiger, was £150, sale £89

London Purchase: Airport Shoes

I've given up on photographing Mr. EWP's Edward Green shoes.  He keep forgetting to bring them home from the office.  Let's just say they're brown dress shoes.  And we're done.

As for me, I was actually going to leave London with nary a purchase.  But then when we were at Heathrow Airport, readying for our trip back to the states, we passed a shoe store in the airport.

They had many many normal looking shoes, many were quite cute, but, for some reason, Mr. EWP and I both were drawn to these shoes:

They're my 40's pinup shoes.  Or, as I call them, my aiport shoes.  Since I bought them in the airport.

 They're from Kurt Geiger, which I would liken to a British Aldo.  Super cute stuff and pretty reasonably priced. 

These polka-dotted wonders were on sale.  I suck at conversion from pounds to dollars, I refuse to learn since the exchange rate makes me so sad.  So let's pretend they were $40.  [They actually were more than that in pounds, but let's pretend, k?]

I'm honestly not sure where I'm going to wear them, but Mr. EWP was very encouraging of the purchase, and who doesn't need neon polka dot shoes?

London Shopping - Jermyn Street

Once upon a time a few years ago, I bought Mr. EWP a Thomas Pink shirt for a gift.  And that day a love of English tailors was born.  The man has been obsessed with the Jermyn street shirtmakers ever since.  So after my day of shopping in Paris, Mr. EWP got his very own day of shopping in London.  We headed to Jermyn Street and went from old shirtmaker to old shirtmaker. You could see the tradition of tailoring dripping from the shelves and bolts of cloth.  It really was interesting to see.  We even went to the royal family official shirtmaker, not surprisingly they didn't have anything off the rack for Mr. EWP to purchase, but some other shirt stores did - Harvie & Hudson, T. M. Lewin, and Charles Tyrwhitt.

But what Mr. EWP was most excited about, the place he has been talking about one day going to for years, was Edward Green.  Think of them as the Louboutins of men's shoes.  Or so Mr. EWP says. I choose to just take his word for it. They were rather pretty, I'll admit. For men's shoes that is.

There really is nothing like them. And you can only get them in London or Paris, they're not available online and they only have 3 stores -the ones in London and Paris.  
 While Mr. EWP tried on boring fine shoe after fine shoe, BabyWP and I decided we'd annoy the snooty sales staff by playing on the floor.  I have a policy that if I'm ponying up the money for your expensive items, then I get to do whatever I want in your store, and what I wanted to do was play with my baby and do a photoshoot. 

After buying a lifetime's supply of dress shirts, ties, and cufflinks, we took a break from Mr. EWP Shopping Day to make one little stop for me - to a fancy milliner.  I've been a little this side of obsessed with fancy hats since the Royal Wedding.

 And these ones were positively works of art.  I drooled my little heart out, but I had made my indulgent purchase the day before, so no hat for me.  And, let's be honest, I'll use that bag WAY more than I ever would a fancy fascinator.

But it sure was fun to try one on!  It was seriously SO GORGEOUS.  Absolutely a showpiece.  And only $1000.  To her credit, the saleswoman didn't scream when I grabbed it and tried it on and took a bunch of pictures of myself. 

Coming up - my London purchases.  And to make it to purchases, I'm including Mr. EWP's shoes.  I, myself, only bought one thing in London. Can you believe it?

EWP Giveaway: Naturalizer Shoes

I'm making up my lack of posting to you by bringing you a giveaway.  And this giveaway involves free shoes.

The kind folks of Naturalizer and MyBlogSpark asked me if I wanted to try some new Naturalizer shoes from their new fall designs.  I haven't ever bought any Naturalizer shoes but I figured why not because a) FREE SHOES!, b) I'm ridiculously in love with these Aerosoles, and c) free shoes.  I ranked some options and waited to see what shoes would be coming my way.  And then they arrived.

 Someone was particularly excited about the arrival of the Naturalizers.

After wrenching them from the grips of a baby who wanted to use them to teethe and drool, I tried on the new flats. They're cute from the side. [Look at all that support! Unheard of in the flats I wear]

 But the snub nose tops made me think of ... I dunno, some sort of animal with a snub nose.  But I was willing to give them a go despite snubbiness.

Folks, these shoes were definitely very comfortable. And they made a great alternative to my $200 Tory Burch flats for heading to the playground and playing in the sandbox with BabyWP.  But they, like almost all flats I've ever tried, gave me blisters on the back of my ankles.  I don't know why but most flats hit me funny right there and give me blisters. Which is why I buy my pricey Tory Burches, not because I'm a snob but because they don't give me blisters.  My feet are odd, they can wear any heel in the world with ease, but every pair of flats makes them cry.  I think they're trying to send me a message.

But if you are a person who could wear flats, these are indeed super comfy.  Also, a note, they run big. I'm a 7.5/8 and asked for an 8 to be safe, but these were super loose and I would've been much happier with a 7.5.  Just in case you're ordering a pair online. 

And now for the fun part



Fun part??? Do tell, mama!

 I will be giving away a gift card for a FREE PAIR OF SHOES at Naturalizer.com.  FREE SHOES, people!

All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what kind of shoes you're looking for this fall - camel boots? wine heels? suede flats? EWP wants to know!  Also include an email/twitter handle/something so I can contact you if you win.

Only one entry per person. Winner will be announced next week.

This is a sponsored giveaway.  The Naturalizer shoes, information, and gift card for the giveaway were provided by Naturalizer and Brown Show Company, through MyBlogSpark.



happy monday

Chicago Spotlight: Saks Fifth Avenue Chicago 10022-Shoe & Brian Atwood

I had the great privilege of being invited to the media unveiling of Saks Fifth Avenue Chicago's newly remodeled shoe department.

They remodeled it to look like Saks New York's shoe salon

That one is so big it has its own zip code: 10022-shoe, hence the name of this one.

I'm not going to lie, they definitely needed the remodel. The old shoe department was so sad and dark, not where you want to head to try on sexy designer heels. But the new one is so bright and airy and full of new designers they didn't carry before. And you know how I feel, the more the merrier!

Of course we had to check out the fabulous Brian Atwood collection.
This one was my fave. Who doesn't need a little sparkle in her life?

Speaking of sparkle...

And then sexy shoe god, designer Brian Atwood arrived to cut the ribbon.
Seriously, the man is gorgeous. I was drooling all over the floor. It was a little embarassing.

Once the ribbon was cut, it was time to wander 10022-Shoe and check out all the yummy shoes.

Seriously *drool*

Then I learned that Brian Atwood has a less expensive line called B Brian Atwood. That was fun to learn about. All the yumminess for half the price!

And then I started checking out shoes that were on people's feet.

There was plenty of good shoe watching at the event.

And then I got to meet the very yummy, very sweet Brian Atwood. *swoon*

In between swooning I did manage to spit out a question for Mr. Atwood and asked what he thought was the must-have shoe for fall. To which he responded "My shoe with ostrich feathers. That's a wow shoe, when you walk in anywhere in those, people will notice." And then I, being EWP, gave him this look like he was insane. OSTRICH FEATHERS are the must-have shoe for fall???? Are you kidding me???! And then seeing the incredulousness on my face, he quickly followed up with "And, you know, a platform pump is always good to have." Yes, a platform pump is always good to have. Ostrich feathers.... not so much.
Thanks for inviting me to the event, Saks! It was a blast and you better believe I'll be spending a lot of time at 10022-Shoe :)