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Photos: Designers’ shoes are going to the extreme

By Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times While shoppers are embracing a back-to-basics attitude about most spending, what is generating excitement in the footwear category is extreme shoes. Kinky styles that might once have been the hallmark of a lady for hire are elevated on hockey-puck-like platforms and pin-thin heels, studded and buckled like bondage gear. And they come at various price points -- $1,400 over-the-knee boots at Nordstrom, $1,195 Balmain multi-buckle booties at Fred Segal Feet, $149.90 open-toed and studded Steve Madden booties at Zappos.com and $129 studded gladiator sandals at Zara. Pictured: Christophe Decarmin for Balmain's Spring-Summer 2010 fashion show in Paris.

By Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times

While shoppers are embracing a back-to-basics attitude about most spending, what is generating excitement in the footwear category is extreme shoes. Kinky styles that might once have been the hallmark of a lady for hire are elevated on hockey-puck-like platforms and pin-thin heels, studded and buckled like bondage gear. And they come at various price points -- $1,400 over-the-knee boots at Nordstrom, $1,195 Balmain multi-buckle booties at Fred Segal Feet, $149.90 open-toed and studded Steve Madden booties at Zappos.com and $129 studded gladiator sandals at Zara.

Pictured: Christophe Decarmin for Balmain’s Spring-Summer 2010 fashion show in Paris.   (Francois Guillot / AFP / Getty Images)

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Christian Dior, by John Galliano

John Galliano for Christian Dior’s fertility-statue-shaped heels at the Spring-Summer 2009 Paris Fashion Week.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Prada

Miuccia Prada’s chandelier-crystal-strung Lucite sandals at the Spring-Summer 2010 Milan Fashion Week.  (Giuseppe Cacace / AFP / Getty Images)

Alexander McQueen

Because of the huge interest in Alexander McQueen’s armadillo-like, snakeskin boots from his Spring-Summer 2010 runway, the designer is considering auctioning the samples -- which took 30 people, three suppliers and three factories to create -- to benefit a charity.  (Francois Guillot / AFP / Getty Images)

Christian Louboutin

Fashion insiders agree this is a golden age of shoe design. Leading the pack is the famous troika of Manolo Blahnik, Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo. Louboutin opened his first store in Paris in 1991 and raised the caliber of shoe design by raising platforms and hiding them, allowing styles to appear much more treacherous than they are. He recently opened a store on Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood.

Pictured: High-end shoe designer Christian Louboutin with a shoe from The Marie Antoinette Collection during its U.S. debut in February at the Christian Louboutin store at South Coast Plaza.  (Christina House / For The Times)

Gwyneth Paltrow

In the last few years, celebrity exposure has helped replace the “it” bag with the “it” shoe. In 2007, Balenciaga’s hoof-like boots were famously worn by Mary-Kate Olsen, while Jennifer Lopez and Christina Aguilera hobbled around in the Yves Saint Laurent Tribute Mary Jane. Last year, Gwyneth Paltrow teetered around Europe promoting “Iron Man” in ever higher heels by Dsquared2 and Louboutin, prompting discussion in the media about how high is too high. Victoria Beckham is such a Louboutin fanatic that the L.A. boutique manager sends her every new style the store receives.  (Elisabetta Villa /Getty Images)

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