Stop the Presses! I FOUND MY SUMMER SHOE!

It's called "love at first sight," and while I rarely believe in it for human beings, I totally believe in it for fashion.

Keep Company Joie de Vivre slip-on shoes, $50, from Tobi. Cruelty- and sweatshop-free, too! We've talked up Keep a million times before; I think they are geniuses. I love how they combine the sportiness of a slip-on shoe with the old-school classicism of toile de Jouy print. So charming!

Shoes: The Genius of the Cut-Out Bootie, Plus a Gladiator Wedge Sandal

I realized what works about the cut-out bootie is that it makes boots a viable option in warmer weather. Being a person who love boots and wears them about 80% of the time, I completely understand this. (The majority of my shoes are boots; it's a little out of control.) Normally one can't wear boots in the summer without either looking like a total prat or sweating their poor feet off, but a cut-out ankle boot-type of deal allows one to carry their love of a heavy, super-tough shoe into the summer season. Plus, those cut-outs are actually practical as ventilation!

Despite my ever-conflicted feelings about Topshop, I am most fond of this boot and curse the day my feet stopped growing because they're no longer available in my size (why must I have tiny feet?):

It's just as well, because while I love a nice boot, I unfortunately have an aversion to high heels. Perhaps I will just stick to my summer shoe staple, the gladiator sandal, this time sexed up with a serious wedge:

By the way, this shoe is inexplicably called the "Heech"...why? Who names these things, anyway?

Walking in Serge Gainsbourg's Shoes

Repetto lace-ups were reportedly the shoe of choice for Serge Gainsbourg.

He preferred the Jazz style in white, but I love these black patent ones, available at La Garconne. Perfect for either sharply tailored suits or any old minidress and bare legs.

Also read this great article on flats and Paris HERE.

Hollywould for Target

As long as we're on this high-low thing at the moment, I thought I would mention that shoe designer Holly Dunlap is set to follow Devi Kroell as Target's next accessories collaboration, under her label Hollywould. (This first got on my radar through Nitrolicious.) Hollywould gets categorized as sort of "loopy socialite" footwear at times - and certainly there are plenty of Pucci-inspired colored fabric espadrilles to back this up as evidence. But she's also got a knack for the quirky and charmingly offbeat. So I'm hoping that she does some of her less fanciful designs for Target, as well as retains their famously well-engineered comfort. (My favorites are shown below; you can peruse them and others at her site. And if you couldn't tell, we obviously have a thing for a lovely flat.)

Our Favorite Guitarist of All Time Designs a Shoe To Help Find a Cure for Autism. (What Has Your Man Done Lately?)

Johnny Marr, formerly of the Smiths, now of Modest Mouse and eternally on our list of musicians we will always fancy, has designed a sneaker for PF Flyers to be sold through Cure Autism Now's website. Stereogum gives you the lowdown here. (Not to mention a picture of that bizarre Joy Division sneaker from New Balance.) Apparently there will be only 108 pairs of the Johnny Marr-designed shoes available in the States for the price of $80, starting July 10th. I'm not a kicks nut like some of you are, but I'll take any excuse to put up a picture of Johnny in his floppy-haired glory anytime.

La Voleuse custom ballet flats

While poking around online for some new ballet flats (after bringing much trauma to my year-old pair last weekend by foolishly wearing them to the beach), I stumbled across La Voleuse’s custom handpainted ballet shoes. You select one of 15 colors (including sparkly silver and gold), pick a design that features a tattoo-style banner (I’m most fond of the “sparrow” and “heart w/ leaves” illustrations), and across the banner La Voleuse will scrawl a song lyric of your choice—their suggestions include some Bowie (“If you say run, I’ll run with you”), Smiths (“Sweetness, I was only joking”), and Blondie (“Color me your color, darling”), but La Voleuse will do any text as long as it’s under 30 characters. It’s sort of like how my best friend and I used to graffiti lines from Lemonheads songs on each other’s Chuck Taylor’s in tenth grade, only much prettier and more conducive to a spontaneous relevé, pas de bourrée, or maybe even a little grand jeté.

Good Times at The String Republic

The espadrille is a humble, classic shoe, but they get the art treatment through the String Republic, an online store started by graphic designer and artist Stéphane Bucco. Each design has been created by a fellow artist, and the results, while highly individualistic and reflective of its designer, are all distinctive and full of color. (My favorite is the "Anger" design by My Dead Pony - yet another fashion pony reference for the blog!) The shoes are locally manufactured, and they ship all over the world, so pick up a pair of a little jolt of art on your feet.

BOOTING UP

Any girl worth her boots knows that Shellys, the British stockist, makes absolutely awesome ones. It's a shame that Shellys won't be selling through their online site, but teenvogue.com has a little piece on how you can get your hands on them (and other perfectly slouchy boots for fall) anyway.

Also: they're now selling Ugg boots at shopbop.com.

A NEW SPIN ON THE "PEEP TOE"

Stella McCartney's transparent synthetic stilettos have spawned a craze for see-through shoewear, at least on the fancy designer end of things: shoewear heavyhitters Manolo Blahnik and Christian Louboutin will be putting out their own takes in the fall. NYPost.com has a little piece on test-driving the practicality of the Stella McCartney shoes and gives a thumbs-up, even saying that wearing them is relatively painless. I don't know--I register as skeptical of the clear plastic parts, but the cut-out look always has an appealing effect on feet. There's just something really strange about clear plastic. Maybe if the clear parts were more like wire mesh or fishnet-y? Or maybe they were tinted like windows?