Driving a Wedge

Miranda Kerr and Julianne Moore in the Marant Beekket high-tops

Do you ever have those moments when you feel you've lost the plot ever so slightly? That is the feeling I get when I start thinking about wedge trainers.  Are they fugly or are they fine? How often would I actually wear them? Then what on earth would I wear them with?  I saw a very chic lady wearing the Isabel Marant ones at Paris Art Fair last September..OF COURSE it was in Paris and she was wearing them with skinny jeans and a fitted coat and look effortless and...well.. Parisian...but could I carry them off? (If anyone would like to donate a pair of Marant trainers to me so I can try this out, then do please email.)


Thanks to Marant, the hi-top is back. And this time it's got a wedge.  The high street has jumped head first into the act and the 'ultimate sports luxe shoe' is set to continue in popularity.  The reason I think it's popular is because it appeals to lazy people like me who find proper heels too much of a trial.  I've already embraced the high-top and am a fan of the wedge..so why not the wedge trainer?  Elle tells us that the wedge trainer is "perfect for adding edge to a pair of skinnies or a leather skirt teamed with opaque's right now, they'll be just as covetable with a denim mini-dress come Spring."  Well Elle, I think this is true if you have legs like Bambi for for mere mortals you might end up looking like the lesser known eighth dwarf, Stumpy.  Anything that cuts you off at the ankle can be dangerous. Apparently my black Yarra desert boots can fall into the wedge-trainer category and I've banged on ALOT about how wonderful they are but to me..they ain't trainers.


Here is a selection I've pulled...thoughts?x

Navy leather and rubber from Topshop

Nude leather from See by Chloe

Tan suede from Aldo..I'm kind of leaning towards these..if any

Navy suede from Ash

And finally, a selection from Isabel Marant..I can't deny that I do have a penchant for the black ones. Donations welcome.

Kara's Tree, Trainer Girl

Sometimes you have love at first sight. It's rare, like a kick in the gut and you HAVE to have the object of your desire. When THREE such lightening bolts hit you, there really is no hope.  Liberty prints, Quentin Blake and a pair of new shoes for encroaching Spring.  The result being these bad boys..

The gorgeous Kara's Trees Print Blazer Mid Dunks, from the Nike Liberty 2011 Collection. There has been heaps of blogger buzz about them for ages and they were finally launched on Friday.


Quite a few of the shoes' fabrics were themed wonderfully around childrens' books illustrations, whereby illustrators such as Quentin Blake and David McKee were asked to draw something for the Liberty design team to then interpret and be inspired by to come up with fabrics.  They then rendered the original drawings with the resulting fabrics to form a lookbook that is used to sell in the 'concept' of the collection.  I have to admit that this was a surprise to me as I had just assumed that Liberty prints were mainly archive revivals. 

The design team all draw original designs, decide on colour palettes and seem to work independently, only for it to all come together as a collection under the umbrella theme.  The starting point for the S/S 11 collection was David McKee's Mr Benn books and resulting TV show.

My absolute favourite illustrator, Mr Quentin Blake  also kindly gave a drawing to the team and after it had been 'Libertified', he wrote this in reaction... "I've always wanted a pair of socks like that..." Big thanks to Susie Bubble for these "behind the scene" pictures!

The Quentin Blake drawing, also inspired a pattern called 'Kara's Tree' which delicately speckles the trainers with a subtle pointillist leaf pattern that for me, makes them the most unisex pair in the collection... if you look closely, there's supposed to be depictions of fence and pebbles along with trees and I took great delight in finding this on my new trainers.

There are of course other designs and I would recommend checking them all out  before they've all vanished or appear on Ebay for ludicrously inflated sums. In the meantime, I'm happily skipping down the street in my new shoes.  Happy Monday everyone!x