Shoes make news as models rise and fall in Milan
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A model wears a creation part of the Dolce & Gabbana women's Spring/Summer 2009 fashion collection presented in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2008.
(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)Shoes make news as models rise and fall in Milan
MILAN, Italy – Shoes are contemporary jewelry, designer Donatella Versace once said, and in recent years they have become an integral part of a designer's fashion statement.
Armani one season ennobled the running shoe by pairing it with chiffon evening wear. In the 1990s the stiletto became a symbol for racy chic. More recently, prewar platforms and wedges thought to have been relegated to the back of grandma's closet became super hot again, especially with teenagers.
The heels have become taller with each season, and the inches are apparently taking their toll. Models at this week's preview shows in Milan tripped, slipped and — in the case of one model wearing ankle-strapped high-heels at Prada — toppled over.
On the fourth day of Milan Fashion Week, there were shoe troubles for both Pucci and Dolce & Gabbana. The sensible footwear from Fendi, however, kept those models firm on the ground.
PUCCI
The Pucci silk prints were breathtaking, tending for daytime to be in monochrome or featuring abstract palm leaf prints. For evening, Pucci created prints out of a myriad of stitched-together crystal beads on a gold background.
Gold also made up the high-heel of Pucci's summer bootie. But apparently extra height makes the shoe as treacherous as it is gorgeous. Despite being trained to be steady on her feet, the same model stumbled three times, somehow managing not to fall.
DOLCE & GABBANA
They might have chosen slippers to go with their pajama party, but the Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana duo accessorized their luxurious silk outfits with sparkling and soaring platform sandals. The super-high platforms were also used for their dreamy ball gowns in tulle and embroidered roses. Dolce defended the towering look, saying that every girl has the right to dream.
But if several of the trained models stumbled on the slippery runway during the show, how can one expect a debutante to negotiate the ballroom floor?
FENDI
The Fendi show featured models wearing wild pinned-up hairstyles and futuristic lace dresses cinched at the waist by a cummerbund. The look may have been offbeat, but the overall effect was still the elegant and easygoing look preferred by Italian designers for the summer 2009.
The footwear at Fendi was strangely calm, though, especially for the house that made metal ankle straps a fashion fetish. The high heels were never towering, and favored was an open-toed saddle shoe fitted with a comfortable wedge.
Article: HERE
A model wears a creation part of the Pollini Spring/Summer 2009 fashion collection presented in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008.
A model displays a creation from Roberto Cavalli's Spring/Summer 2009 women's collection during Milan Fashion Week September 24, 2008.
REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo (ITALY)
It's a devil to wear Prada... Models topple off heels at show
Last updated at 11:27 AM on 25th September 2008
This is one pair of heels that should come with a safety warning. In scenes reminiscent of Naomi Campbell's infamous 1993 catwalk tumble, not one, but two Prada models tripped over in their shoes in Milan yesterday.
Onlookers, including American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour, watched in horror as the girls lost their balance in the towering snakeskin platform sandals.
They even had to be helped to their feet by members of the audience during the Italian designer's ready-to-wear spring/summer show for Milan Fashion Week.
Despite the tumbles though, the show went down a storm, with the collection receiving a standing ovation.
Mannequin down: Six inch platform shoes on the Prada catwalk get the better of this model
If Miuccia Prada was a fish, she would be a salmon, swimming upstream. So against the tide of fashion is Mrs Prada that whatever is currently in vogue, you can say with some certainty that she will produce its opposite.
Fall collection: A model on the Prada catwalk wobbles on her sky-scraper heels and tries to regain her balance as hands in the front row reach out to steady her..
... but the inevitable happens and she tumbles to the ground. Right, the offending shoes are removed
This show turned its back on this season’s embellished, highly decorated look for something simpler and pared back. The first clue came from the catwalk, which meandered like a river and was painted with fish similar to ancient cave drawings. The second clue came from the models’ skin, slicked with water as though they had just risen from the sea.
All the clothes were tied in rudimentary fashion, as though they hailed from an era before
zips and hooks had been invented. Calf-length pencil skirts came with elasticated waists or a
drawstring.
Shrunken jackets had no fasteners except a tie at the neck; dresses had wide neck apertures with a bow at the side. Open backs on fine gauge cashmere jumpers were tied with cotton strings like hospital gowns.
Metal seams kept fabrics stiffly away from the body, while hospital gown-style ties held clothes together
The hospital theme was echoed by the little socks worn under each vertiginous snakeskin stiletto sandal, not dissimilar to those found on surgeons in an operating theatre. Sadly, it was those slippery socks that made walking so tricky.
Most fabrics were self-coloured. But their plainness belied their technical wizardry, for Prada explained backstage that many designs incorporated metal seams allowing the pencil skirts and shrunken jackets to sit stiffly away from the body, and also lent the fabrics a crumpled look.
Back to basics: The collection, according to Miuccia Prada, was simple and clean. 'I wanted to go back to something primitive, I was searching for what really matters', she said after the show
From a distance, they looked like simple crushed cotton - but, as always with Prada, all was not quite as it seemed.
“I wanted to go back to something primitive,” she said. “I was searching for what counts,
what really matters. I wanted to clean things up and make them simple.”
“Primitive” it may have been, but this was another standout collection from a woman who
often makes the rest of Milan feel staid.
Article: HERE
I really pity those falling models. I can see how hard it is for them to walk on a "sky scrapers" shoes. I watched a video of it on youtube, poor girl, she just stood up as if she's not hurt.
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Oops! I feel a bit bad for these poor girls who often have to wear extravagant heels for even just a few seconds. Their knees and ankles must be messed up. It's not surprising that some of them slip and fall, they're models, not superhumans! Hopefully designers will understand that most people need clothes for real life, not the runway.
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