ACCESSORIES

Not just for strippers, your pole dancing class, your Jersey Shore party, platforms are the shoe for Spring. Now don’t be scared. Platforms are proven more comfortable than traditional stiletto styles, and this spring, you have your choices of styles alright. From open-toed booties to neon accents, there are enough platform styles to make your head spin.

Get used to that height because Spring’s platforms go from day to night. Light suede earth-tone booties look great with destructed skinny jeans and patent leather platforms add edge to colorful spring dresses as well as smartly compliment your go to little black dress. They buckle, they lace, they shimmer, they shine and as long as they’re a four or more inches, they’re the platformula to get you high all Spring.

  
Emma Dinzebach

Our dedicated yoga practice is finally ready for a spring debut and to further lengthen our lovely stems, we can celebrate the return of nude shoes. Last season we matched our skin to our footwear in the form of spiky stilettos (namely Louboutin), and pranced around Soho trying not to fall over. This season has been more gracious as nude shoes are showing up in platforms, wedges, sandals and slightly subtle brogues.

Best of all, this season’s nudes command attention. They kind of make us want to use jazz hands. Whether tipped in glitter like Top Shop’s nude brogues or a twisted heel like Jeffery Campbell’s Michelle pump (left), twenty ten takes us out of our comfort zone and into Wonderland…or Pandora. It’s a season to mix, match and make believe that your legs really are four feet long…even in flats. So don’t be tempted by multicolored, heavy black or school-girl browns come Spring shopping season. For your feetsies, go nude. Matching the neutral shade to your skin tone is even better. You’re legs will thank you…and so will your boyfriend, your neighbor, your deli guy, your office crush and your UPS man.

Emma Dinzebach

We know Manolo mary-janes are not, Carrie Bradshaw, an Urban Shoe Legend. And some of us are fortunate to even own a pair. Type “mary-jane shoes” in Nordstrom.com’s shoe search and over ten pages worth of the classic revamped come to view. Of course, some are children’s shoes and others just hideous, but a few special pairs tickled our fancy. We even liked a gold pair by Jessica Simpson. Too much? Reds, neutrals and of course, plain black come in a variety of styles to suit anyone from rocker chic to Upper East Side.

(Below, left to right: Enzo Angiolini, Christian Louboutin, Harajuku Lovers.)
  
Or if you prefer the real thing, you can still purchase black Manolo mary-janes at Bergdorf.

Emma Dinzebach

The headgear craze kicked into full gear in March on the catwalks of Georgio Armani (right), Azzaro (center), Fendi (right) and more. Fall takes us past tired fedoras and accessorizes toques with feathers and feathers with lace. From Amelia Earhart inspired flight caps to shiny lacquer turbans, it is high time to cover your quaff.
In another city, I might provide more subtle ways, like shimmery headbands or sparsely jeweled headwraps, to top off your look. But in Gotham, subtlety misses the point. So put away your single feather clips and get out the entire wing. Actress Samantha Morton wore a dramatic tilted Dick Tracy-esque hat by Giorgio Armani on the cover of the Times most recent T Magazine while the “Batty Brits” inside donned miniature crowns, dual winged hats, mohawks and bright pink fedoras. The message, anything goes! While you might be tempted to use your headgear as the statement piece, take some advice from your spinning instructor and add this season’s hair wear to another statement piece. If you were shy, you would live in Kentucky.
Emma Dinzebach