Designer Footwear - What's good, What's bad?

[irulan]

I own a couple of designer shoes. It's no huge collection and I certainly don't go shopping for a new pair every other day, but I have racked up some in the past. And I must say, my experiences with most of them were terrible:

My pair of Alexander McQueen pumps? One heel broke off after while I was standing around idly. I had worn them a maximum of ten times.

My Prada sandals with ankle straps? The straps keep coming off. I was wearing them for the first time, they broke immediately.

My Proenza Schouler sandals - the rubber sole on the heel came of when I was wearing them for the first time. Same happened with a pair of YSL pumps and Balenciaga sandals.

Such shoes do not come cheap. And I was under the impression that I'm paying a certain price for a certain quality. I love designer footwear, but in the future I want to be more careful with what I purchase. So what are you experieces? Who makes really good shoes? Who makes bad ones?

I'm very content with my Greissimo Louboutins and a pair of Marc Jcobs slingbacks, for that matter. I wear them often and they're both comfortable and of a good quality.

 

[Brigitte031]

I have a few pairs of designer shoes... And I hardly wear them. Total fail on my part. The two bad experiences I have with designer shoes from all my pairs:

Miu Miu clogs that everyone has - They are SO heavy and completely uncomfortable. Clogs are supposed to be comfy but definitely not the case. I've worn them about 4x and absolutely die if I have to stand up for any period of time.

Alexander Wang Abbey - they also hurtttt.

My one and only expectation for designer shoes is that they be made with higher quality padding and better structure so that no matter what the height of the heel they are decently comfortable to wear.

 

[luckyme]

i find dries van noten shoes are consistently well made and he never cuts corners, his work shows pride and earns respect. my fail safe for a million reasons no matter what though, are ann demeulemeester always the best of the best. marni also doesnt cut corners, and for artisan quality hand made, m.a+ shatters expectations. for fancy heels manolo and alaia rate very high.

huge dissapointment with burberry and dior. uneven stitching and shoddy construction. price doesnt justify the shoe but i do love last years burberry suede wedge even thought the eyelet holders popped about. rounding out the low end of the scale for me is louboutin, factory made mass production quality.

 

[ErnstLudwig]

Well nothing RTW is "hand made" nowadays, maybe if you count sewing with a machine though the leather sole… some show pieces still are otherwise 40 hours of work make no sense.
Overall the quality of nearly all designer shoes is joke: Corrected-grain outside, insole made out of paperboard and that for 600 bucks or more

It would be interesting to know how many of the designers actually manufacture shoes themselves and don’t outsource that task. Info like this isn't something they really brag about...

 

[piggy]

Strictly going by comfort, I must say I find Louboutin, Bottega Veneta & Balenciaga far more comfortable than most other designer brands. Chanels are OK, YSLs stretch a lot with wear, Choos *always* give me blisters, and the Diors are just . . . ouch!

 

[mistress_f]

my most comfortable heels come from christian louboutin, miu miu (but it really depends on the style. A pair of my miu mius is the most painful shoe ever created), giorgio armani (feels like walking on a cloud) and yves saint laurent. Viktor and rolf can be very comfortable and very painful, too.

i have a pair of john galliano shoes that are very very uncomfortable to stand in. and a pair of marc jacobs i've never worn cause at first they seem so soft and nice and then they kill your feet.
Overall i've never had a heel come off, but the heels tend to get ruined way too fast. it doesnt help i live in a city with the worst pavements ever for a heel-wearer but really, they should 'resist' more. Same goes with Lanvin flats. while uber comfortable and actually more resistant than other designer flats i own, i had to have them resoled and the patent leather at the bottom is rather ruined. And i don't even wear them much.

 

[g212142]

I used to wear Margiela high-tops and they were perfect really, except they were a size too big so I sold them, hardest thing ever..

My sister owns Louboutin ballet flats and they are very very comfortable and well made, same with Marni.

 

[benno]

I own a few pairs of designer heels (yes I am a boy). I find all that sets them apart is the material that's on show, it's the designer name, expensive leathers and exotic skins that push the price up. I have carefully removed the insoles on some designer heels (including Louboutins) and the inner construction of the shoe is the same reinforced cardboard as every pair of heels on sale. Shoes should ideally be all leather if you're paying top money.

I normally find mass produced 'high end' high street shoes to be better in terms of construction. It makes sense. If you are making 10,000 pairs then you get it right before you start making them. Here in the UK I find brands like Office, Aldo, River Island and (the now bankrupt) Faith to have the best construction/price ratio. Kurt Geiger makes designer inspired fairly high priced shoes and they are worse than the brands on the normal high street.

Surely the whole designer thing is a well disguised illusion. There is a huge markup in shoes. If Nike et al. pay approx £5 to make a pair of technology stuffed marvels then I'm sure the cost of mostly cardboard high heels is really low.

I have bought brand new £150 shoes for less than £10 in Kurt Geiger's sale (to sell on ebay for a profit). If they can sell in the sale at such a low price then surely they are selling them at just above cost, including shipping from Brazil.

 

[toutlamode]

I would highly recommend Chanel flats, they are at first a little uncomfortable but after maybe the 10th time you wear them they become so soft and so comfortable. I have 2 pairs of Chanel flats that i wear on summer non stop,(i'm not much of a sandals person) and they last and last and last. One of those pairs I have for 3 years now and you can't even imagine how much i've worn them and they still look pretty good. I will keep purchasing flats from them unlike heels which i own a pair and it's really the opposite. I hardly wear them.

Chloé shoes are pretty good too, comfortable and resistant. I've had good experience with Balenciaga and amazing experience with Salvatore Ferragamo, probably the best overall.

 

[turnofflights]

never forget i bought a pair of balenciagas and upon first wear they broke. exchanged them for another pair... once i reached the third time i have come to the conclusion they make poor shoes.

 

[Margaret24]

Christian Louboutin seem the most comfortable to me

 

[toutlamode]

never forget i bought a pair of balenciagas and upon first wear they broke. exchanged them for another pair... once i reached the third time i have come to the conclusion they make poor shoes.

Really??? 3 times??? OMG! Sounds awful! I have a pair of Balenciaga platforms and i've never had trouble with them, but then again i've worn then 8 times tops. Still i'll have it in mind next time i think of purchasing from them.

 

[thejarc]

I guess I've been waiting for this thread forever but never knew.

As for men's shoes:

Rick Owens - awful quality for this price
Ann Demeulemeester - no complaints
Lanvin - hurt at first, but now I like them a lot. awesome leather
Bottega Veneta - very good quality, but unfortunately no leather lining
Carol Christian Poell - expensive as hell, but worth every cent. top-notch quality.

 

[kAYAPO]

I've a reasonable collection of designer shoes and never had any problems with Manolo Blahnik, Gucci, Emilio Pucci or older CL. I did have a pair of Joseph boots once where a heel broke off the 1st time I wore them. Have never bought any more from them because of that.

With Manolo when a pair of shoes I had needed a strap fixing I phoned the London shop, they took them back without question, sent them to Italy to be repaired and delivered them back by courier for no charge within 5 days - that's what I call service!

These days a lot of designer shoes are mass produced and poorer quality materials are used I think. Even Manolo Blahnik has gone a bit that way now which I think is a shame. I will only buy the more individual designs (mainly becuase those are the ones I like) but also you can see they are hand made by the slight variations.