Shoe Expert, Television Personality and Author Meghan Cleary

MICHAEL JACKSON AND HIS PENNY LOAFERS

Meghan Cleary — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:23:58 +0000

What did the shoes say about the man? A classic black penny loafer guy (though if you look closely more often his had a patent sheen, or were a modified penny loafer wingtip hybrid), paired with classic white (or sparkly white) socks. Penny loafers were invented in 1936 by the Bass company who coined them, “Weejuns”, after the Norwegian farmers slip on style shoes they were modeled after. In the 1950’s the loafer come out of the suburbs and morphed into a symbol of classic cool, personified by James Dean, who also took plain, everyday items like a white t-shirt and workingman’s jeans and transformed them into a signature for a new generation. Like James Dean, Michael Jackson was transforming himself — from child star into bona fide pop phenomenon. Off the Wall to Thriller, teenager to man, child to sex symbol. As he made his mark as an adult, he chose penny loafers — etched in people’s minds as classic, icons of prep,and turned people’s ideas of what that meant on its head. Certainly he was troubled, isolated, sad, but when he was on stage he was forever transforming something — transforming an ordinary day into a force don’t stop, or burning the new MTV generation’s mind with the images of Thriller and Billie Jean. He used the penny loafer as a reference point, then took us all somewhere else in it as he moonwalked backward across the stage and into our collective consciousness.

JCREPORT: RAPHAEL YOUNG

Meghan Cleary — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:41:50 +0000

Raphael Young: Footwear For The Fierce
July 6th, 2009 | Paris

Raphael Young is taking things up a notch. With a well-built team of partners in key cities from New York to Tokyo, marketing and PR headquarters in Paris and a devoted cult following around the world, Young is positioned to leverage his fanatical following into a truly global footwear business.

Young was first inspired to design shoes at the tender age of 14 after attending his first haute couture show. Trained under his uncle Alexandre Narcy, who was the head of Yves Saint Laurent’s shoe studio for 40 years, he even received some key advice from Mr. Laurent himself: “keep it simple.” He went on to work at various design houses in Italy, including Gianmarco Lorenzi, before starting his own line.

These days, Young pays close attention to balance, proportion and physics as he handcrafts his own wooden lasts, which are paired with a proprietary sole material. The resulting comfort factor makes fashionistas salivate. His fierce Barbarella-inspired designs feature aggressive Space Age architectural silhouettes paired with gleaming metallic leathers and a genius take on the almond shaped toe box. All you have to do is put a pair on to rule the world.

—Meghan Cleary

THE NEW POWER GIRLS: ANDREA BUCHANAN

Meghan Cleary — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:03:55 +0000

Andrea Buchanan tells about transitioning from one medium to another — award winning TV director to nonfiction books to speaking. Check it out.

JCREPORT: FANCY FOOTWEAR

Meghan Cleary — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:00:56 +0000

Fancy Footwear
July 2nd, 2009 |

With shoe obsessions continuing to grow exponentially, venerated footwear instutions have stepped up to the plate with products that satisfy industry influencers as well as the consumer audience.

Footwear Plus, the footwear industry’s monthly magazine, just launched a new website with a Nylon-esque feel and decidedly downtown sensibility, a daily updated blog with op-ed about how the larger retail world trends translate into the industry and a free Trendspotting email blast.

Meanwhile, ANCI (Associazione Nazionale Calzaturifci Italiani), otherwise known as the The National Association of Italian Footwear Manufacturers, follows up its groundbreaking Made in Italy social media campaign with a spot-on trend report for spring/summer ‘10 straight from Milan. Originally intended for the shoe industry, the report offers key inspirations for global fashionistas this fall from trend stories such as Vertical Garden to Urban Chic Marina.

Despite publisher Jay Spaleta’s recent replacement by Men’s Vogue publisher Marc Berger, Footwear News pioneers forward this fall with the first ever Stepping Out in Italian Shoes event during Fashion Week in September. The event is set to be like an Academy Awards for shoes, celebrating the best in Italian design and manufacturing.

These changes, varied as they may be, could be the ticket to opening the industry to consumers rather than just insiders.

—Meghan Cleary

RAPTOR PREMIERE

Meghan Cleary — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:03:29 +0000

Check out all the photos from the Raptor premiere last night. I talked with Jay Leno about his favorite shoes — Ferregamos on-air, Payless boots off-air!!

Raptor Born in BAja oremiere on Speed TV June 12 at 4 pm — check it out. Is very suspenseful!!!

JCREPORT: TENOVERSIX

Meghan Cleary — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:46:50 +0000

Retail Watch: TenOverSix’s Exclusive Appeal
June 11th, 2009 | Los Angeles

etail Watch: TenOverSix’s Exclusive Appeal
June 11th, 2009 | Los Angeles

Since its debut in the fall of 2008, the eclectic and airy TenOverSix boutique has warmed the hearts of Los Angelenos with its New York state of mind. Owned by NYC expat and shoe designer Kristin Lee, Joe Cole, and Brady Cunningham, the store is chock full of accessories for women and men, art, design objects, lighting, furniture, and obscure books and magazines.

TenOverSix’s corner space on Beverly Boulevard stacks shoes on chairs suspended on the wall from Maloles, Eileen Shield for Zero+Maria Cornejo, Opening Ceremony, Bess and Matt Bernson. Apparel from Bodkin Brooklyn, Electric Feathers, Rachel Comey and Vivienne Westwood Anglomania, while bag lines by Acne, Alexander Wang, Rachel Nasvik, Martine Sitbon, Life with Bird and Hayden Hartnet populate the rest of the space in between the magazines and books.

The store has also cemented exclusive distribution in LA for Zan Zan eyewear, Six Scents perfume, Wundervoll lingerie, Ligia Dias, Silver Lining Vintage Eyewear and WANT Les Essentiels des la Vie, with an eye on acquiring more exclusive items from around the world. What’s more, they have also begun production on a TenOverSix private label line, designed by Lee and Brady, that will have its debut this fall at TenOverSix, Opening Ceremony in LA, New York and Tokyo as well as Steven Alan in New York.

Shop address: 7427 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA
323.330.9355

—Meghan Cleary

THE NEW POWER GIRLS: PAIGE GELLER FOUNDER, PAIGE PREMIUM DENIM

Meghan Cleary — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:04:40 +0000

I know you love Paige Denim like I do. Hear how Paige made it happen on The New Power Girls today.

STILETTO SPY SCHOOL

Meghan Cleary — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:55:56 +0000

On my way to Vegas to stay at the gorgeous Palazzo hotel and christen their brand new pool Azzurro tomorrow morning with some Stiletto Strategies. As part of Alana Winter’s amazing and empowering Stiletto Spy School, I am going to teach the ladies how to rock their Stilettos, and their Stiletto attitude. Will keep you posted with pics and etc.

MEGHAN CLEARY ON CNN : JOHN MCCAIN’S FERRAGAMOS

WOMEN IN POWERFUL PLATFORMS

Meghan Cleary — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 06:22:21 +0000

Check out my quote in the Kansas City Star:

“Platforms are interesting, very cyclical — they come through every 25, 30 years,” says Meghan Cleary, who blogs about shoes and wrote “The Perfect Fit: What Your Shoes Say About You.”

She sees towering shoes as recognition of the gains women have made in recent years, not least of which being Hillary Clinton’s historic run for the presidential nomination.

“Shoes more than any other item of fashion that we put on our body have a physiological impact on us, they affect the way we walk, the way we carry ourselves,” Cleary says. “There’s so much we can tell about people from their shoes.”

THE NEW POWER GIRLS: CANDACE NELSON FOUNDER OF SPRINKLES CUPCAKES

Meghan Cleary — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 22:08:52 +0000

Check out this week’s episode of The New Power Girls with Candace Nelson the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes — an all cupcake bakery here in Los Angeles.

Two words: Red Velvet.

Shoe Expert, Television Personality and Author Meghan Cleary

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