Gypsy's Luxe List | 09/16/2008 12:00 am

Mary Wells: From Stems to Sunglasses to Sparkles

Armando Valerio

It was a surprise as I traveled around and also called my favorites but they mostly agreed: If you are pulling back this Christmas, the chicest, hippest, coolest gift one woman can give another will be: SHOES.

Click here to see photos of some of this holiday season’s fabulous gifts in shoes, sunglasses and jewels.

These days the great new shoes are expensive — for just a pair of shoes. But they are not expensive for a luxurious Christmas gift. And shopping for great shoes is one of life’s best shopping days. You can delight a great friend with fabulous shoes at Christmas. I’ve photographed a sampling of mildly mad shoes for you – Eastern radiance from Manolo Blahnik; the knife shape that you see as a design element in everything a woman can wear this Fall shows up in a Prada black shoe; Chanel does its version of the short saucy black boot that will flood the streets this winter; and Chanel stacks a silver shoe modeled after a harem that is very easy to dance in.

Buying shoes this season is like going to the theater with the appearance of red feathers, art-deco jewels, stained-glass toes, stainless spike heels, rockabye platform soles that you need to learn to wear. Roger Vivier has created feather stilettos that are works of art you can hang on your wall when you take them off and Jimmy Choo has Roman gladiator sandals with soaring heels that must be the sexiest shoes of the season – these are expensive flights of fancy that will send a woman’s spirit soaring – that’s a huge gift to give a true friend who will always remember how hip she must appear to you by your choice of shoes for her.

And sunglasses have become sculpture. Chanel has a pair with red rim glass and quilted black stems that are killers. Dolce & Gabbana have the big dark ones you see being chased by paparazzi and Bottega Veneta has the most expensive-looking ones — like their beautiful handbags.

I am saving my little luxuries in jewelry report for later in the season but I did see a necklace that a friend of mine is creating of Tiffany diamond stars collected like charms on a charm bracelet — on a white-gold chain and I was captivated. The stars are light (something over $4,000 each) but they are not small and they sway twinkling on a simple chain looking so new, so spiritual, so different I can’t get them out of my mind. My daughters want Frank Gehry’s silver bracelets or Elsa Peretti’s serene round lacquer pendants — not inconsiderate hopes — so I know I will be going back to Tiffany so I can see those diamond stars again. As I am one of those who hope to be among the first to move to the moon a simple necklace of stars would not be incompatible.

Check back next week for more on the Gypsy’s Luxe List …

Click here to read Gypsy’s Luxe List Part One: Tasty Temptations for Under the Tree.

Read more about: Chanel, Christmas, Gypsy, Holidays, luxe list, Shopping, Tiffany & Co

12 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

For soaring spirits, I’d take a trip to Montenegro - and alternatively, this: cool gifts of well being and security from A Shopping List for the World: Yaks, water pumps, seeds, books, hospital beds, cookstove vents, HIV meds, microloans… rescue from slavery… http://www.alternativegifts.org/ The catalog: https://www.alternativegifts.org/projects/

By Emcye Edwards on 09/16/2008 2:22 am

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Thank you Emcye for that wen site, I saw it one day and then lost it. I am thinking maybe I am on the wrong site. My friends are happy with my home made truffels or breads.

By Jeannot Kensinger on 09/16/2008 5:19 pm

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P S ‘web site” correction

By Jeannot Kensinger on 09/16/2008 5:22 pm

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DEar Santa Mary, Al of these years I have been sending my Santa letter to the north pole. I should have sent it to you. I have been a good girl this year. I really really would like a pair of those Jimmy Choo sandels and a pair of those Bottega Veneta sunglasses. I promise to be a good girl for the next couple of months. Please Santa Mary. With love and kisses. XO

By Rainbow Power on 09/16/2008 6:14 am

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This post made me sooo think about my neighbor. She just turned a closet into a shoe “museum”! it has tilted glass shelves (like in shoe stores) and special lighting to show off her shoes. That she considers “art”. LOL. I always thought I loved shoes until I started meeting women who REALLY loves shoes. as a child my mom bought 75% of my clothes at second hand stores. i got one new pair of shoes a year and they got worn very quickly as you might imagine. So when i grew up I had a fetish about my shoes not looking worn. I thought that meant I loved shoes! Ha! I still only have maybe 20 pairs of shoes total. And I was just thinking it was ridiculous and I need to get rid of the ones I don’t wear.

By Chrome Toe on 09/16/2008 9:19 am

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But OMG I LOVE those stacked silver Chanel shoes!!! I’d wear them once in a blue moon but other than that I’d just sit and look at them.

By Chrome Toe on 09/16/2008 9:21 am

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I’m giving books this Christmas. But from what I see in the links, I’ve made some excellent choices for my fall/winter wardrobe. Thanks, Mary.

By Ms. Dee on 09/16/2008 9:40 am

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For fun, I wore rhinestone earringsout to lunch in dumpy old Chandler AZ and got so many compliments! Put it on and sell it, girls!

By Star Lawrence on 09/16/2008 10:06 am

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Ha! ha! Star! Good for you with the earrings! My standard attire is a pair of jeans, a tank top, and a jacket. Then I drag out the good jewelry and it’s all fun. Purses with bling and shoes are my Achilles heel(s), I have an embarrassingly large collection….love ‘em just this side of my kids!

By Maurine H on 09/16/2008 10:30 am

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Hey Star! I’m on my way to Chandler tomorrow as a matter of fact. I LOVE the Chandler mall. But I haven’t found any good restaurants there. I hate chain restaurants. Any ideas?

By Chrome Toe on 09/16/2008 10:42 am

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We are kinda set in our ways—and go to a place on Alma School Road called Floridino’s Pizza and Pasta…we have eaten there gazillions of time. The wait staff is very nice. Like our own kitchen at this point. The owner is a twit on the City Council and we are putting his kids through collitch, but whatEVER. I am not nuts about the Fashion Mall places, either. That one with baked potatoes—we have been there…nothing too spectacular.

By Star Lawrence on 09/16/2008 12:25 pm

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It’s bizarre that we have to work so hard to find gifts for our friends who already have “everything.” How about giving gift certificates from Kiva (at www.kiva.com)? Your friends can make microloans of their choice - you send them the gift certificates and they choose the recipients of the microloans on line. Then, when the loan has been repaid, they can “cash in their chips” and spend the money on themselves or, better, they can make another round of microloans. In this way, your gift can keep on giving and giving and giving….

By Sam Mirando on 09/16/2008 3:37 pm