Who hasn’t been coveting the Yves St. Laurent Cage Booties (Below Left) ever since their appearance on the S/S ’09 runway? Unfortunately, with a price tag of $1,590, they form a scuptural prison for your wallet. Leave it to offbeat contemporary label Jeffrey Campbell to bail you out with these $165 versions (Below Right)…
The $165 Jeffrey Campbell booties may lack the sublime architectural beauty of the YSLs, as well as the AutoCAD-esque metal heel; however, one must admit that for a roughly 90% discount, it could be forgiven. You can score them at LFStores.com, or in, well, LF Stores (see their site for locations).
This forces me to question my stance on “knockoffs” like this (by a less expensive yet still legitimate quality company, i.e. NOT sweatshop labor or blatantly illegal). While it’s easy to scorn them, there are pricey designers who scour vintage and lesser-known brands for THEIR ideas, which is arguably the same, or maybe worse…I remain undecided. What do you think? Or are you already too busy picking outfits to match your new cage heels?
I guess it comes down to….can the jeffrey campbell client afford YSL? Is this JC purchase impacting the bottom like of YSL’s business. AND FYI, this cage lattice upper is not a YSK orginal, you may notice campbell used the authentic mod inspired block heal, where YSL took it a step more haute design—bringing it all together with their own look on the heel shape.
Definitely; I was touching on that when I mentioned high-end designers recycling concepts just like mid-priced labels get criticized for doing
I tend to come down on the side of greater accessibility (i.e. knock offs for all!), but I don’t really dig it when it’s something so distinctive. No so much because it’s “wrong” as because it makes the shoe a viable trend item, which means that it won’t be confined to the runway, editorials, and a favoured wealthy few… and its novelty will wear off that much sooner.
I just bought those! I love a good knock off- The YSLs didn’t come in my size so the next best thing. Its tough with a stand out piece like that one but I’ll risk my chances, photos on my blog soon! http://dustydress.blogspot.com