Shoe Designers Hope for a Post-Oscar Nod
If Cinderella were going to the Academy Awards on Sunday, she could cast aside her glass slippers to stay out past midnight in, say, a pair of stylish shoes from Jimmy Choo, Stuart Weitzman or even Hush Puppies.
Many stars needn’t spend a penny for a pair of crystal-encrusted stilettos as the Oscar fashion battle moves beyond gowns to celebrity soles. Shoes peeking out from under dresses may not get much red carpet buzz on the big night, but photos of celebrities wearing them are likely to lead to sales of shoes that, though expensive, are still more affordable than designer clothes.
The happy ending comes with the post-Oscar publicity windfall, when magazines publish close-up photos for months, even a year, later.
“Shoes are much more accessible,” says Tamara Mellon, co-designer at Jimmy Choo. “Many women couldn’t buy a $20,000 couture gown, but they can buy into the fantasy with shoes and bags.”
The campaign for celebrity feet--men’s too--has been going on all week at L’Ermitage, a Beverly Hills hotel that has been overrun by fashionistas.
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In Garden Suite No. 3 on the first floor, London-based shoemaker Jimmy Choo has set up a makeshift showroom. Fashion publicist Marilyn Heston is rallying her stiletto-heeled troops after receiving word from stylist Raven Kaufman that Courtney Love is interested in seeing some samples.
“She is wearing a fishnet tube dress and wants to do something really special with the shoes, maybe something hand painted,” Heston says, reaching into a Dior camouflage print handbag to silence her cell phone.
A project for English artist Rosie Mennem, who has been flown in to hand paint shoes and bags, which can also be dyed or beaded.
Love’s interest is great news for Sandra Choi, co-designer and niece of Malaysian-born Choo. The company has never advertised. “We put all our [marketing] money into this. It’s the single most important night of the year,” Choi says. The exposure will translate into actual sales, she says, though it’s difficult to quantify.
Cate Blanchett’s red-carpet walk at last year’s Academy Awards in a pair of gold Jimmy Choos is still generating press in magazines. “We could never afford the millions of dollars’ worth of publicity,” says Mellon.
In most cases, the evening shoes--which typically retail for more than $500 a pair--are given to celebrities if they will wear them. “We use their name . . . on our client list. It’s a trade-off,” explains Mellon.
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Up on the fifth floor, actress Vivica Fox blows into shoemaker Stuart Weitzman’s showroom suite, sits down with a glass of chardonnay and eyes a silver platter of high heel-shaped chocolates. “I’m doing vegetables all week,” she says, passing up publicist Roger Neal’s pleas for her to try the candy. Fox plans to wear a pink Escada dress on Oscar night with Weitzman pumps that are being dyed to match and sprinkled with pink Swarovski crystals.
“Can you just make sure a photographer gets a shot of you in the shoes,” asks Joan Weitzman, who is filling in for her husband. “We’ll put it in our stores and use it for our publicity.”
“Swa-vor-ksi, Swa-va-ski.” Fox is practicing her pronunciation for the red carpet. “Want me to write it down phonetically?” Weitzman asks gently.
Stuart Weitzman started his Oscar footwork the day the nominations were announced, sending baskets of shoe-shaped cookies to nominees. This is his first time at L’Ermitage, though his shoes have often turned up on the red carpet.
He opened a Beverly Hills boutique in February following a disaster with Hilary Swank last year. “We had her shoes all set, then her dress changed the day before the Oscars. I own my own factory, so I called Spain and had another shoe made in 12 hours and delivered by UPS,” Weitzman remembers. “It arrived seven hours too late. This year, we’re stocking more than 3,000 pairs in every color imaginable, so hopefully we won’t end up disappointing a celebrity or ourselves.” Indeed, the boutique is open 24 hours this week.
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Down the hall, two knee-high plush dogs stand guard outside the Hush Puppies room. “Sharon Stone was in earlier today,” says publicist Tina DiSanto, waving bye-bye to bereted stylist Phillip Bloch and the British television crew following him around for “A Day at L’Ermitage.”
Stone tried everything on, DiSanto says. “And we’re making a special, custom boot for her. She even took a stuffed dog for her son.”
Will Stone wear a pair of soft-soled “after party” shoes, studded with crystals, on Oscar night? “To tell you the truth,” DiSanto says with a chuckle, “I’m not sure she’s going.”
Five years ago, Nicolas Cage and Kevin Spacey both wore Hush Puppies to the Oscars. Jeff Lewis, vice president of marketing, believes published photographs of them led to the sale of more than 30,000 pairs of similar shoes.
Of course, finding those million-dollar shots isn’t always easy, especially with men’s shoes, which are almost always black. “We have to look at hundreds of pictures very closely,” DiSanto says.
It’s a small price to pay, and hopes run high. “One shot of an Academy Award-winning actress wearing our shoes is worth a dozen Hush Puppies ads,” Lewis says. “It would be great for us if Kate Hudson wins best supporting actress and is on the cover of People with the shoes slung over her back, and stores from all over start calling and clamoring for them. It would give us cachet.”
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Nearby at Neiman Marcus, the in-store Manolo Blahnik boutique will send styles out to celebs who request them, but the shoes must be paid for if they are kept.
“I am very grateful that many people in Hollywood wear my shoes,” Blahnik says from London. “I can’t say that I have ever designed with a specific star in mind or a shoe just for the Academy Awards. Even for such an incredibly important night, I think a woman has to stick to what makes her special and beautiful.”
Like some others, the designer looks askance at the free-for-all. “Freebies have ruined real style, in that I mean individual elegance,” he said. “If a woman chooses to wear something by A, B, C or X, Y, Z just because it’s free--to me that is tragic. Really tragic, and more to the point, vulgar.”
