When on twitter my friend Sassi Sam asked us what we thought of the new Louboutin campaign well Is there anything to think ?

Christian Louboutin has gone back to the masters of the 18th Century still life painting for the inspiration for his latest ad campaign.
This orgy of beauty was created by Peter Lippmann, who is an acclaimed still life photographer, Nicolas Menu in creative direction and Amandine Moine the stylist. The seductive vignettes of decadent masterpieces put the shoes on an artistic pedestal they look right at home in. Little artworks, they are lovingly impractical as it is, why spoil the effect with feet?

Christian Louboutin source viewonfashion

I love shoes as much as most women and maybe more. I even have astrological aspects to back this up (mercury in Pisces) translating very loosely to thinks from feet- also in images.  In saying this you would not guess it – I am really rather sensible compared to my flock and to my peers. I just have feet that need well designed and study footwear. And any shoes that make my legs look incredible are only worn in my bedroom – with soft carpet.

(Girls gotta have a few props.)

When I say wow those shoes are so high they are always chirpy saying oh they are so comfortable – rubbish!! –  they make her look thin tall and feel powerful. And they ache like hell and are giving her the ugliest bunions as we chat. Not to mention one stumble and her ankle could snap at any moment.

When seeing the fashion pack recently picking their way through lawn and dealing with sand at Swim Fashion Week in their gorgeous silly heels I noticed that the senior or top people were all wearing flats. So the girls climbing the career ladder are doing so in 6 – 12 inches, and the editors and publishers are quite comfortable thank you. Interesting. This all brings me to what is happening on the runways for the last 5 seasons at least.

What the heck is happening ?

First we get the two years of hell in baby doll dresses that make you look like an infant or pregnant, together with platform shoes – so a pregnant, clumpy child – mmmm not how I had envisioned looking in my late 30′s. Then we got the same deal though the shoes got much higher well with their own little step and the skirts got shorter – great now they want me to look more like a child prostitute (and do you think any mainstream made variations ??? nope – child hookers the lot of you) So as hemlines became more like big belts and shoes something that needed scaffolding I did not hear too many cries from women thinking feminism has just been trampled on ….. I just wondered around in shock muttering to myself. ……..how compromised  does this all make you feel ?

And do I need to mention how many tumbles we have seen on the runways of late ?
Makes great sensationalised fodder – but if you cannot have a model under a certain age – can you also have a shoe designed for walking in please. Not feeling the empowerment of the elegant woman I had pencilled for myself, when as a teenager I looked at women in their 30′s and 40′s looking so stunning classically beautiful and well it was the 80′s – powerful!

Now this new European season the hemlines are lowering, volume is being revisited and now to cope with the longer skirts those masters of the cloth have now put everything with the equivalent of something you would wear if there was open sewers in the streets, high heels with their own high shoes underneath. Call me crazy but I do not feel empowered by any of this – if it were just theatre I love it. Translating to the main street – disaster. When am I going to feel embraced as a woman by fashion rather than feeling like I should be binding my feet and kowtowing.
Is this progress ?