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Saturday 5 February 2011

An obsession


Classic shoes are my favourite. Most of the girls are usually obsessed with heels, platforms... Christian Loubitin's, Jimmy Choo's, Manolo Blahniks... Jeffrey Campbell's Lita's!
But I am 'in love' with the Belgian shoes. They are perfectly traditional and strikingly quirky. In my view these can bring a twist and sophistication to any outfit- a formal suit, scruffy jeans, shorts, and especially dresses- plain little black ones, summer frocks, and probably signature Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress, considering Belgian shoes have a classical slipper shape.
Belgian shoes were designed by Henri Bendel in the 40's and apparently gathered a large WASP following in the US. Apparently, they are still hand-sewn to this day in the country from which they've taken their name, and come only in 1 4 slightly different styles for women (Genius concept!), but come in every color and material. In my view the Midinette ladies range is the most versatile and up-to-date. They are available in colourful calf leather, animal print, metallic, suede, patent, croco patent, linen, lizard calf leather, ostrich, python,  velvet... and wool!

Here are some of my favourites...






























All photos are from the official website.

And here are some of my favourites from the Minstrel range. Strangely, the colourful ones are so neat and classical they remind me of nurses unifroms in the 40's... 








And now let's see how people wear these...

Here's suave looking Laurence Harvey wearing a pair of Belgian shoes in 1967, on a trip to the UK (try not to get distracted by Mia Farrow and her perfect dress!)



Here's an impressive collection of Belgian shoes that belonged to notorious Bernie Madoff... 



And finally here are some lizard midinette's worn by someone called Rachel Chandlers that I found on the Purple Diary


By the way, if you didn't know... Olivier Zahm (the guy behind Purple magazine and Purple diary)  hates bloggers! He 'ates' us all.


Voila! Hope you enjoyed this. Have a great weekend!

6 comments:

  1. so chic ♥ I love them too!
    xoxo
    LiDì

    http://fashiondeliz.blogspot.com

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  2. How delightful - I've never come across these before. I can see how they might become and obsession - one pair could never be enough! LOL

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  3. I didn't even know of this brand, so thank you heaps for such an informative post. I would never limit myself to either heels or flats, I love having lots of choices. I've never understood people who will only wear heels, it is such a strange thing to refuse to wear flat shoes - they look better than heels with loads of outfits!

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  4. nyam nyam, amazing post :)
    lovely shoes

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  5. DeLiz- glad to know you know you share my enthusiasm ;)

    Mrs Exeter- EXACTLY! I couldn't even select my favourite from the bunch I've posted... or leave a pair out- they are so wonderful, all of them!

    Miss Dreadful- You're very welcome; glad I could share something you found interesting... :) I don't understand people who solely wear heels either... I can't wear them at all unfortunately, otherwise I become AWKWARDLY tall.

    Mary Ko- thank you dear!

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  6. I think I've seen these on Coury of Fancy Treehouse. They are really striking and charming shoes! Good to know what they are and how to get 'em. Or bad, depending on how you look at it. *eyes wallet woefully*

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