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Posted by
Reem Adeeb
I have a super announcement to make "SUPERDRY" has opened its doors right here in little old Cannes, my BF and I are super pleased...I should stop using the word "super" at this point...it just comes naturally along with the smile on my lips. I no longer have to run to Selfridges or the Covent Garden store when in London to pick up tshirts and the like , it is right here at my doorstep and come summer my friends kids are going to blow the hinges off the doors and buy buy buy by the bucket loads. They should foresee trolleys and baskets by the door,as all one really needs is to go through the isles and pop things super market style...(there goes the word "super" again...)into the baskets and head straight for the till because that is how eye poppingly colourful and more-ish this items are...you can't just stop at one tshirt,you'll need at least 2 more plus a sweatshirt and well...the choice is there, just take your wallet or your mom and her wallet and head straight there as soon as you get off the plane at: 6 Rue Freres Casanova 06400 Cannes. It is the pedestrian only area off the rue d'Antibes opposite Agnes B and surrounded by cafes and eateries for you to stop snack, have a coffee and dive back in!
Their first boutique in France opened back in March 2009 in St Tropez and the fevered frenzy has spread to Cannes,newly opened and ready for your business.
The staff are super cute and extremely helpful without being pushy and overbearing...one needs a minute or two to silently contemplate the extraordinary array of colours without someone breathing down your neck. This is not only for the trendy youths but for their adult counterparts too.
Move over A&F, Superdry is the new man in town.
Posted by
Reem Adeeb
CROCS:
Yes, they weigh less than a feather and you can adorn the little holes with cute little badges of ladybugs and smiling sunflowers....if you are 3 years old! Anyone above that: "Step away from the rubber looking wicker baskets... Unless you are Miss Marple". The whole look screams gardening so do just that: put them in your garden,plant Azaleas in them...pop a few garden gnomes beside them and Voila! You have yourself a Philippe Stark garden for a fraction of the price.This whimsical footwear is simply that : cartoonishly whimsical and yet it has taken the world by storm: A fad to stay, I am afraid and my foe.
BIRKENSTOCKS:
I daren't say much about this eponymous label other than it has reached cult status now and has joined the likes of Doc Martens and Citroen 2 CV'S: they are trendy and an acquired taste. If you have never acquired a taste for Marmite you may never acquire a taste for this kind of footwear. I leave them for the die hard fans and followers out there who are no nonsense people and would turn their noses up at Louboutin and Prada...Fashion has friends and foes in all the high places, who is to judge? Pass the muesli....
SJP,SCHOLL AND UGGS:
Back in the heyday of Sex and the City, Sarah Jessica Parker,always the doyenne of fashion and trend , was one of the first to be pictured wearing a special edition Doct Scholl with an elevated heel,Carmen Miranda style. Scholl was lifted out of the doldrums and into the limelight and they were sold everywhere and not just to nurses and beauticians. When winter drew near, SJP was snapped in baby blue coloured Uggs.... I ran out and bought a pair of each. Obviously a Carrie fan....in my eyes and the eyes of thousands SJP could do no wrong.... other than SATC the 2nd movie....why oh why take it out of the Big Apple and into the Baba Ghanoush?! Pfffff.
Uggs continue to grow and evolve in styles and colours,even Jimmy Choo latched onto the frenzy and gave us a studded rocker version for winter 2010/2011.
So thumbs up for Uggs/Mous...as for my leopard Scholls: they are relegated to the back of the closet.After a lengthy tug of war of "should I wear them and then suffer the pain of blisters" I gave up the ghost and simply love them from afar....as I now do SJP.
MUKLUKS/MINNETONKA:
Mukluks I found fun when they first came out and thought they would make a refreshing change on the "apres ski" scene.The pompoms bouncing around when you walk soon became a bore.
I owned a pair of Minnetonka fringe booties back in my boarding school days in the 80s...didn't wear them much. I think I was way ahead of the trend and not quite ready for the statement they made...well they made me feel like a moose tracker and frankly the fashion world wasn't ready for them back then either. So their revival came at a time when Mukluks and Uggs were de rigueur, so who would look twice at squaw fringed booties. Kate Moss looked great and was pictured many a time wearing the knee high version in black and the whole hippy chick vibe with Nicole Ritchie rocking the look was fresh and fun.
Older and fashion savvier,I tried to give them a go a second time around ....with not much result.It took me forever to unlace the bloody boots just to try them on in the shop and got so fed up with the interminable task, that I left them in a bundle on the floor and walked out into the arms of Pinot Grigio .
Ah! The foolish dictates of fashion and its followers.
HUNTER WELLIES:
Love,love, love em! The Jimmy Choo versions,the Glastonbury versions...the long and the short of them.They are practical,fashion forward and look great. I bought a pair of short, front lace up ones in green after much deliberation...you would think living on the Riviera I would need nothing more than flip flops...How wrong can one be. It is more like living in Seattle at the moment than the bloody Med.
Fad or foe, comfort or trend ? At the end of the day,whatever tickles your fancy is worth the stares.
Posted by
Reem Adeeb
CLOGS:
I remember as a kid I avidly coveted a pair of clogs,first seen on my Swedish friend Tina's feet. I loved the clumpy hollow sound they made whenever she walked and they were a far cry from the Kickers we were made to wear and loathed.My mom never understood the attraction;understandable since growing up in Alexandria,Egypt a clog would have been used for killing roaches and doing odd jobs around the house.But she soon caved in and I became the proud owner of a pair of patent yellow leather clogs that I wore with pseudo Swedish pride.
Years on and clog free,I attended boarding school in Switzerland . The subject of clogs amazingly came up one night as our in house director gave us our welcome speech.Each winter ,from the months of January till March, was spent up in the mountains and we senior girls inhabited a gorgeous chalet with wooden floors and paneling with nothing for miles around (so no one could hear us scream...) apart from the wee train station straight out of the Alamo. So due to all the wood,it was understandable that clogs were verboten,the sound would ricochet like gunfire and deafen the entire population. We were also told,while I am at it,that no self respecting female member of this school should be seen smoking in the village streets, chewing gum like a cow or standing under a red light after dark....Natch!
I never revisited the idea of clogs until last summer when suddenly they became very in vogue and Chanel brought out a rather vertiginous version at an also vertiginous price.The battle was half won,at that price they would never find a niche within my wardrobe and I would probably be avoiding a trip to the A&E...Bonus. But one always wants to buy what is both "in" and "over priced" just to partake in that wonderful circle of tomfoolery,so I decided to check out Ebay and see if there would be any for the taking and there were,quite a few in fact,sold as new or "worn once and broke my ankle"but most still up there price wise. Maybe the sellers were desperate to get their money back or buy back their pride,after all there is nothing chic about biting the dust from on high. Did you not see the episode of "Sex and the City" when Carrie tripped and flew across the shop floor in Dior?! Mortificado!
MBTs:
I had never heard of the Masai Barefoot Technology line of shoes but my sister had read about them and dragged me into the sports shop on Kings road to try them on.They were created in 1996 and the company's philosophy is "to keep the body in continual motion" after having studied the Masai. The fact that "they can walk barefoot on natural and uneven ground" helped them make the discovery that "instability had amazing health benefits."Well if motion sickness is anything to go by,I would rather walk on solid ground with my flat soles than rock my way down the high street on what can only be described as a pair of ink blotter rockers strapped to each foot.Hideous...although they have since improved the look I still can't abide them. The Masai are a beautiful,lithe,majestic people that inspire calm and inner strength,I cannot see how the shoes represent them in anyway and I find myself singing: "Weebols wobble but they won't fall down.." when looking at a pair of those shoes in whichever shape or form they now come in. Other than my sister who has since sold hers on Ebay,I have a dear friend in London who has a pair in a nasty shade of concrete grey. I have had the pleasure of walking down Kings road many a time with her as she rocked and rolled alongside me. Sometimes she would skid,trip or suddenly be pitched forward and come to an abrupt halt like someone suddenly slamming on the brakes...I didn't know whether to act like nothing was up or cry out: "Timberrrrr!"
FITFLOPS:
Marcia Kilgore of "Bliss" and "Soap and Glory"fame decided to create a fashionable alternative to the flip flop that would enhance your physic and cure certain ills,she aptly named them: Fitflops. Here comes the science: "They are biomechanically engineered to help you tone and tighten your leg muscles while you walk"in plain speaking: to get your junk out of the trunk. They also "relieve chronic back pain,sciatica and osteoarthritis..."I would much rather get my flop fit at the gym and wear my simple,cheap as chips Havaianas flip flops that don't promise you a darn thing and therefore won't disappoint.
TO BE CONTINUED.....
